The day after the Louisiana House voted to stop the removal of war memorials and monuments in the state, the city of New Orleans on Wednesday dismantled the equestrian statue of Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard.
Starting late Tuesday evening and working well into Wednesday morning, crews used a crane to pull the six- to seven-ton statue of Beauregard astride his horse from its pedestal, the Times-Picayne reported, and also removed the nameplate.
The New Orleans newspaper said the noted jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard was on the scene at 3 a.m., using his phone to record the moment. Blanchard, an African-American born in New Orleans who has won multiple Grammys and also scored Spike Lee’s movies, said he had just come into town when he read that the monument was coming down.
"It's a historic moment," Blanchard said, according to the Times-Picayune. "This is something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. It's a sign that the world is changing."
But Louisiana lawmakers don’t see it that way.
The House voted 65-31 on Monday to prohibit the removal of Civil War monuments – a move that so angered the House Black Caucus that all 24 members walked out in protest.
Rep. Terry Landry, a Democrat and member of the black caucus, said the members had no choice but to walk, according to the Advocate of Baton Rouge.
“It was disgusting,” Landry told the Advocate. “We just couldn’t stay. You have to stand for something.”
HB71 says, in part:
915. Military memorial conservation
11 A. (1) No memorial, including any structure, plaque, statue, or monument, that is located on public property and that commemorates the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican-American War, War Between the States, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, War in Iraq, or any Native American War shall be altered, removed, relocated, or destroyed.
(2) No public memorial, including any structure, plaque, statue, monument, 18 school, street, bridge, building, park, or area, that has been dedicated in memory of 19 or named for any historical military figure, historical military event, military organization, or military unit shall be altered, removed, relocated, destroyed, rededicated, or renamed.
Although the measure lists every war its authors could think of, observers agreed that it was aimed at the Civil War. The bill, which now goes to the state Senate, does provide for changing or removing such monuments “if a proposition authorizing the action has been approved by a majority of the voters who vote on the proposition at an election held for that purpose.”
The removal of the Beauregard statue in New Orleans, which stood at the Esplanade near the entrance to City Park, was the third such overnight action by the city since Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered the removal of four monuments glorifying the Confederacy.
As in the first two operations, workers were wearing bulletproof vests and other protective gear and were covered by police. Supporters and opponents of the removal demonstrated as the statue was lifted off.
The city first removed an obelisk dedicated to the Crescent City White League, which engaged in a deadly battle with the city's biracial police force in 1891. Last week the city took down a statue of Jefferson Davis, which stood at the intersection of Canal Street and Jefferson Davis Boulevard.
Still to come is the removal of the soaring statue of Robert E. Lee, which represents the greatest challenge by far to the removal crew. Emporis, the website that catalogs the height of structures, says the Lee statue, and the column on which it stands, is 108 feet tall.
The Louisiana controversy continues even as the city of Charlottesville, Va., has its own debate over the proposed removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. The debate devolved into a racist Twitter fight Tuesday as opponents of the removal posted anti-Semitic rants against Mayor Mike Signer.
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