New Orleans mayor lays out broad plan to rid city of Confederate memorials and relics
THE GUARDIAN
12 JUL 2015 AT 11:34 ET
Mitch Landrieu aims to rid city of statues of Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and other Confederate figures while he calls for the renaming of a major parkway
As southern statehouses and cities debate the legitimacy of flying the Confederate flag , the mayor of New Orleans is proposing the most comprehensive plan yet to achieve lasting racial reconciliation in the wake of last month’s mass mass shooting in a South Carolina black church. Mitch Landrieu wants to dismantle historic city statuary that honors key figures of the Civil War, and rename a major parkway whose namesake led the Confederacy.
Last week, Landrieu instructed the city council to begin the legal process to remove statues of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy; General Robert E Lee; General PGT Beauregard; and a monument honoring soldiers in the Battle of Liberty Place, an uprising of former Confederate soldiers in 1874. Landrieu also wants Jefferson Davis Parkway renamed to honor Dr Norman C Francis, the long-time president of Xavier University, an all-black Catholic institution.
Landrieu, the first white mayor of New Orleans since his father, Moon Landrieu, left office in 1978, says the statuary does not represent a city rebounding from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina into one he insists is more inclusive of all races and identities.
In a statement, he said New Orleans was “a place a where we celebrate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not death, war and slavery” and that the statutes were “symbols of supremacy from places of reverence that no longer, if ever, reflect who we are”.
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http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/new-orleans-mayor-lays-out-broad-plan-to-rid-city-of-confederate-memorials-and-relics/
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