‘They should be lynched’
Mississippi lawmaker under fire for remarks over removal of Confederate statues
A Mississippi state lawmaker is under fire after calling for the lynching of leaders who supported the recent removal of Confederate monuments in Louisiana.
In a Facebook post published Saturday night, Mississippi state Rep. Karl Oliver went on a diatribe regarding the controversial statues in his neighboring state, which have been taken down this month:
“The destruction of these monuments, erected in the loving memory of our family and fellow Southern Americans, is both heinous and horrific. If the, and I use this term extremely loosely, “leadership” of Louisiana wishes to, in a Nazi-ish fashion, burn books or destroy historical monuments of OUR HISTORY, they should be LYNCHED! Let it be known, I will do all in my power to prevent this from happening in our State.”
Oliver included with the post a picture of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which was the last of the four controversial monuments in New Orleans to be removed Friday. Oliver, a Republican, was elected to the state legislature in 2015. His district includes Money, Miss., the town where a 14-yearold black boy named Emmett Till was lynched by two white men in 1955.
On Monday, Oliver was not reachable at his office in the Mississippi State Capitol and did not immediately respond to questions sent by email.
A woman who picked up the phone Monday morning at his workplace, Oliver Funeral Home, said she could not take any calls regarding the Louisiana monuments and hung up.
Two other Republican state representatives, John Read and Doug McLeod, also “liked” Oliver’s Facebook post, along with Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Tony Dunn, according to Mississippi News Now.
By Monday morning, the Facebook post had attracted a litany of comments, from those who supported Oliver “for speaking the truth in this world of political correctness” to others who lambasted the lawmaker for his “disgusting” and “appalling” remarks. Many called on him to resign.
As of Sunday night, no state Republicans had publicly condemned Oliver’s post, according to Mississippi Today.
Democratic state Rep. Chris Bell said he was “angered beyond words” by Oliver’s “inflammatory remarks.”
“His constant and consistent disrespect for those who are offended by the images of hate is unacceptable!”
In 2015, the New Orleans City Council voted to take down the four statues around the city — a move that triggered a heated, prolonged debate that involved legal challenges, death threats, violent protests and the national spotlight.
The removal process finally began in April, two years after the city council vote.
“It won’t erase history,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who led the effort, wrote in a guest column for The Washington Post this month. “But we can begin a new chapter of New Orleans’s history by placing these monuments, and the legacy of oppression they represent, in museums and other spaces where they can be viewed in an appropriate educational setting as examples of our capacity to change.”
But protesters resisted the statues’ removal, with some staging 24-hour vigils. Like Oliver, many felt that their Confederate heritage was under attack.