Two Confederate-era monuments defaced in New Orleans
18th April 2016 · 0 Comments
Just days after a state Senate committee in Baton Rouge rejected a bill aimed at preventing local governments from removing or relocating historical monuments across the state without the approval of a proposed state commission, two Confederate-era monuments in New Orleans have been vandalized.
The two monuments — the Battle of Liberty Place monument and the Abram Joseph Ryan monument on Jefferson Davis Parkway — were defaced over the second weekend of April with red paint that read “Take ‘Em Down,” a sentiment expressed by many in the city and a reference to the name of one of the groups spearheading efforts to remove racially offensive statues from public spaces, Take Em Down NOLA.
While Take Em Down NOLA admitted to vandalizing several Confederate-era monuments in the past, the group said it had nothing to do with the latest round of vandalism. Still, it applauded the efforts of whomever was responsible for the acts.
“We encourage people to express their feelings,” Malcolm Suber, a spokesman for Take Em Down NOLA, told Nola.com Monday.
The Battle of Liberty Place monument and statues of three Confederate leaders — Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and P.G.T. Beauregard — were declared “nuisances” by the New Orleans City Council in December in a 6-1 vote to remove the monuments from public spaces.
Legal challenges to the City of New Orleans’ plans to remove the monuments were rejected in civil and federal court earlier this year, setting the stage for the rejection of state Sen. Beth Mizell’s bill that would have blocked the removal or relocation of historical monuments throughout the state if it had passed.
To the dismay of monument supporters like Lt, Governor Billy Nungesser, former state Sen. Elbert Guillory and Jonathan Maki, a member of a group called Save Our Circle, Senate Bill 276 was rejected in a 5-4 vote along party lines with Democrats on the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee rejecting the bill and GOP members supporting it.
Efforts in New Orleans to remove the monuments have been impeded by a series of death threats against a Baton Rouge-based contractor and his wife whose company was slated to take on the monument-removal project. After receiving those threats and being told by a number of his other clients that they would cancel contracts with the company if H&O Investments took on the statue-removal project, the contractor backed away.
Just days after a New Orleans city attorney told a federal judge in mid-January that the contractor had backed out of the project, the contractor’s Lamborghini was torched as it sat in the company parking lot. Authorities have been unable to confirm that the fire was in any way connected to the statue-removal project.
The Monumental Task Force, one of the four groups that mounted legal challenges to the removal of the Confederate-era monuments, told Nola.com last week that it would restore the two statues that were vandalized recently.
“We aren’t in a hurry, though,” Pierre McGraw, president of the Monumental Task Force, told Nola.com.
McGraw said it is easy and inexpensive to deface the monuments but expensive and time-consuming to restore them, adding that monument supporters have not gotten much help from the City of New Orleans with regard to restoring the monuments or shielding them from acts of vandalism.
Malcom Suber said Take Em Down NOLA will continue to work to bring down all statues and monuments in the city of New Orleans that celebrate the Confederacy and U.S. slavery.
“People should realize that these statues continue to be an insult,” Suber said. “As long as they stay up, this (vandalism) will continue to happen.”
Meanwhile, a second bill was rejected in the state legislature last week, perhaps a sign that monument supporters won’t get any help in blocking the removal of the four Confederate-era monuments in New Orleans from state lawmakers.
House Bill 944, authored by state Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, hit a major roadblock after a vote of 7-7.
WWL News reported that the bill would require a waiver from the Memorial Preservation Board before removing or relocating a statue, monument, memorial or plaque that has been on public property for more than 30 years.
Supporters of the bill suggested that the removal of the four monuments in New Orleans might still be blocked by amending bills during the legislative session or finding a legislative loophole that might allow legislators to vote on the bill despite its failure to pass the muster with the House panel.
Each strategy appears to represent a major uphill battle during a legislative session where budgetary shortfalls have taken center stage.
While both bills were statewide in their scope, they were authored after the controversial City Council decision to remove the four monuments in New Orleans.
The city’s effort to remove the monuments from public specs is currently tied up in court after the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction to stop removal until the appeal is settled.
This article originally published in the April 18, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
