New Orleans council votes to remove Confederate monuments

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By CAIN BURDEAU

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans City Council has voted in favor of removing prominent Confederate monuments along some of its busiest streets — a sweeping move by a city seeking to break with its Confederate past.

The council's 6-1 vote on Thursday afternoon allows the city to remove four monuments, including a towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that has stood at the center of a traffic circle for 131 years.

The decision came after months of impassioned debate. Now, the city faces possible lawsuits seeking to keep the monuments where they are.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu first proposed taking down these monuments after police said a white supremacist killed nine parishioners inside the African-American Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June.

FULL story at link.


FILE-In this In this Sept. 2, 2015 file photo, the Robert E. Lee Monument is seen in Lee Circle in New Orleans. New Orleans is poised to make a sweeping break with its Confederate past as it contemplates removing prominent Confederate monuments now standing on some of its busiest streets. On Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, the City Council is set to vote on an ordinance to remove four monuments. A majority of council members and the mayor support the move, which would be one of the strongest gestures yet by American city to sever ties with Confederate history. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/77011dc277f64009bf8c61eaadac3675/new-orleans-considers-removing-confederate-monuments

[KamaAina]

1. "Before the cote, council member at-large Stacy Head asked to keep the large monuments to Lee..."

Last edited Thu Dec 17, 2015, 04:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Ah yes, Stacy Head, who got into a drunken brawl at Jazz Fest a few years ago.

Maybe now they can do something about street names like Jefferson Davis Parkway, which NOLA activists long ago unofficially renamed "Angela Davis Parkway".

[Judi Lynn]

2. Correcting a hideous wrong against the human race. Refusing to celebrate monsters. n/t

[Sherman A1]

3. Good

and long overdue.....

[Babel_17]

4. There's marking history, and there's celebrating history

Put the artifacts where history buffs can find them, where they are now looks callous.

[MisterP]

5. the danger is that the city elders will now say "aright, that little race issue's solved now"