New Orleans residents spend days discussing Confederate monuments

BY JAQUETTA WHITE
July 31, 2015

... “While some people may feel the same way that they did when they came this morning, some said, ‘You know, I’m not sure now,’ and a few people even said, ‘My opinion has changed,’ ” Morse said.

The four monuments are the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee atop an imposing column in Lee Circle on St. Charles Avenue; a monument to the Crescent City White League, a white supremacist group during the Reconstruction era, near the foot of Canal Street; a statue honoring Jefferson Davis, the president of the short-lived Confederate States of America, on the parkway also named for him; and a statue of Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard in a traffic circle at the entrance to City Park.

Earlier this month, the City Council voted to begin the legal process that officially would label the monuments as “nuisances.” That measure was proposed by Landrieu, who appeared before the council to urge it to pass an ordinance that would declare the monuments to be nuisances and allow for their removal after holding hearings and soliciting comments and recommendations from various city agencies ...

A group called Save Our Circle said removing the Lee statue “would be irrevocably detrimental to bridging any gap between our fellow New Orleanians” ...

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/13049200-123/at-mayor-landrieus-request-new