'If I had my gun on me, I'd shoot him': the civil war over statues in New Orleans
Last edited Mon May 1, 2017, 08:52 AM - Edit history (1)
As New Orleans begins to take down statues of Confederate leaders, angry protesters are flooding into the city to face off - and nuance is the first victim
Matthew Teague in New Orleans
Monday 1 May 2017 07.00 EDT
The city of New Orleans surrendered early during the actual Civil War, after the Confederates left it poorly defended. This time, though, reinforcements from far afield have arrived to hoist the battle flag.
“I will chain myself to that son of a bitch before I let them tear it down,” Wilford Seymour said Thursday, waving a hand toward a statue of General PGT Beauregard mounted in a bronze saddle. “By God I will ride that horse myself.”
Seymour had driven overnight from Arkansas, as soon as he got word that the city of New Orleans was pulling down some of its Confederate monuments. The city’s first maneuver was a covert one, carried out at 3am Monday. A crew wearing masks and bulletproof vests, guarded by snipers overhead, dismantled a monument to the Battle of Liberty Place. It was the most obvious of four monuments marked for removal, since it commemorated an ignoble post-war uprising by white supremacists who didn’t like the direction New Orleans was headed.
The monument’s removal was timed for maximum symbolism. Monday was the day some Southern states celebrate as Confederate Memorial Day.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/may/01/gun-shoot-civil-war-statues-new-orleans
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