(Times-Picayune) A New Orleans City Commission voted overwhelmingly Thursday (Aug 13) in favor of permitting the removal of four Confederate-related monuments in the city.
After a tense and occasionally raucous two hours of public comments, some of which bucked racial consensus on both sides, the Historic District Landmarks Commission voted 11-1 on a motion saying that the four monuments “may be removed.”
The City Council has the ultimate authority to declare the monuments public nuisances and have them removed, but it asked the HDLC, along with the Human Relations Commission, to provide recommendations on Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s recommendation to remove statues of Robert E. Lee, PGT Beauregard and Jefferson Davis as well as a monument to the Battle of Liberty Place, which commemorates a coup backed by Confederate sympathizers against the integrated Reconstruction government.
Governor Bobby Jindal, meanwhile, wants to see the monuments stay and is investigating whether the state has the authority to block their removal, should the City Council move to do so.
