Liberty Place monument in New Orleans is first of four to come down

Early Monday morning crews removed New Orleans' Liberty Place monument commemorating the failed rebellion of a white supremacist militia, the first of four statues slated to be taken from their public perches, according to The Advocate.

The unannounced removal marks the beginning of the end of a debate that has roiled the city in the nearly two years since Mayor Mitch Landrieu called for the removal of the monument to the Battle of Liberty Place and more prominent statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

The statue will be stored in a city warehouse until a museum or park can be found where it can be placed in its proper context, city officials have said.

The other statues are expected to be taken down soon, as city officials announced early Monday they had secured the private funds needed for the job. However, the Landrieu administration said it would not give advance notice of those removals and did not provide details on who provided that money, how much was donated, how the ultimate fate of the statues would be or how the city would choose new monuments to replace them.

The lack of notice for the work and the fact it was done under the dark of night upset groups on both sides of the debate, with even those who have fought to tear the monuments down calling it a “cowardly” move.

Read more at theadvocate.com.

This story was originally published April 24, 2017 at 6:56 AM with the headline "Liberty Place monument in New Orleans is first of four to come down."