Suit challenges removal of Confederate monuments

Source: AP

By CAIN BURDEAU

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal lawsuit is challenging a city plan to remove prominent Confederate monuments by charging that the city doesn't own the land under three of the monuments and they are protected from removal by state and federal laws.

The suit, filed shortly after the City Council voted Thursday to remove four monuments, asks U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans to halt removal plans. The suit was filed by three preservation organizations and a New Orleans chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The decision by New Orleans is one of the most sweeping gestures yet by an American city to sever ties with its Confederate past. New Orleans, like other places, was spurred into action against Confederate symbols after the mass shooting at an African-American church in South Carolina in June that left nine parishioners dead.

The monuments slated for removal include a 60-foot-tall marble column and statue dedicated to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and a large equestrian statue of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Louisiana-born Confederate general. Also up for removal are a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and an obelisk dedicated to a group of white supremacists who sought to topple a biracial Reconstruction government in New Orleans.

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