New Orleans removes Beauregard statue

NEW ORLEANS — Workers took down a Confederate monument to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard in New Orleans early Wednesday as people watched from lawn chairs, defiant statue supporters waved Confederate battle flags and opponents celebrated.

It was the third of four such monuments to be taken down under a proposal by Mayor Mitch Landrieu that was approved by the City Council more than a year ago. As with two earlier statue removals, it happened in the dark. Work began soon after sundown, and news outlets showed the statue being lifted off its base shortly after 3 a.m.

The statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee will be the last to be removed. The city already has removed the statue of the Confederacy’s only president and a memorial to a white rebellion against a biracial Reconstruction-era government in the city.

“Today we take another step in defining our City not by our past but by our bright future,” Landrieu said in a statement. “While we must honor our history, we will not allow the Confederacy to be put on a pedestal in the heart of New Orleans.”

Landrieu called for removing the monuments in the emotional aftermath of the 2015 massacre of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church. The killer, Dylann Roof, was an avowed racist who brandished Confederate battle flags in photos, recharging the debate over whether Confederate emblems represent racial bias or an honorable heritage.

The City Council voted 6-1 in 2015 to remove the monuments after several contentious public meetings marred by heckling and debate. Contractors in the removal process have been threatened, and the work stalled for months as statue supporters looked in vain to the courts to stop it.

Those removing the first two memorials generally wore bullet-resistant vests, helmets and face coverings to shield their identities as the work took place well after midnight to minimize attention.

More recently, lawmakers in the Louisiana House backed a proposal Monday aimed at keeping cities from removing Confederate monuments. Black lawmakers derided the House vote as “divisive” and “offensive.”

Workers at the Beauregard statue removal covered their faces and wore helmets, but the atmosphere appeared slightly more low-key than previously.

Later Wednesday police said they arrested a father and son for spray-painting the statue’s base with the words “Gen. Beauregard CSA.”

Pierre McGraw, president of the Monumental Task Committee which sought to keep the monuments, called the mayor’s actions an “insult” to all who donated money to build them and “honor the memory of their fallen family members.”

But for many in the majority black city, the monuments pay homage to a history of slavery and segregation.

“I’ve never looked at them as a source of pride,” said Terence Blanchard of New Orleans. “It’s always made me feel as if they were put there by people who don’t respect us.”