Debate over New Orleans' Confederate monuments nears a vote
NEW ORLEANS -- A proposal to remove prominent monuments linked to Confederate history is poised to become a heated debate before the City Council.
On Tuesday, Council President Jason Williams announced that the council will vote on whether to remove four monuments at a special meeting on Dec. 17. Before voting, though, the council president said a hearing on the matter will be held Thursday.
Williams said the issue has sparked a lot of interest and that council members have received "extremely passionate" comments.
After a mass shooting at a black church in South Carolina in June, Mayor Mitch Landrieu proposed removing the monuments, including a prominent statue of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee in the middle of a traffic circle also named after the Confederate leader.
Besides the Lee statue in Lee Circle, the council will look at removing statues of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, and one of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general, that stands at the entrance to City Park.
The fourth monument is an obelisk dedicated to the memory of the Crescent City White League's brief, and bloody, overthrow of a biracial Reconstruction government after the Civil War.
The proposal has brought out passionate arguments for and against the removal of the monuments at city hearings, forums, in social media and in public discourse. Protests also have been held at the monuments.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and U.S. Sen. David Vitter -- both Republicans -- have been among those who've spoken out against the removal of the monuments. Jindal has said he would look at what legal options he has to stop the monuments from being taken down. Vitter chided Landrieu for focusing on the monuments instead of tackling crime.
Landrieu's proposal has been welcomed by many in New Orleans, including a cross-section of pastors from different faiths. In August, the pastors stood together at a news conference to denounce the monuments as symbols of hatred and racism.
The Landrieu administration has said an anonymous donor has offered to pay the $144,000 that the city has said it could cost to remove the monuments.
Landrieu has said the monuments do not represent the "diversity and inclusiveness" of New Orleans and instead are divisive symbols of slavery and war. Taking down the monuments is part of the mayor's plans to prepare the city to celebrate its tri-centennial in 2018.
This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Debate over New Orleans' Confederate monuments nears a vote ."