New Orleans begins removing white supremacist monuments

Workers in New Orleans have removed the first of four prominent Confederate monuments, as another Southern US institution severs itself from symbols viewed by many as a representation of racism and white supremacy.

The Liberty Place monument, which commemorates whites who tried to topple a biracial post-Civil War government in New Orleans, was taken away on a truck in pieces after a few hours of work.

The removal happened early in the morning in an attempt to avoid disruption from supporters who want the monuments to stay, some of whom are said to have made death threats.

Workers who took the monument down wore bulletproof vests, military-style helmets and scarves which obscured their faces.

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Police were also on hand, including officers who watched the area from the top of the parking garage of a nearby hotel.

Three other statues, commemorating Confederate generals Robert E Lee and PGT Beauregard and Confederate States of America president Jefferson Davis, will be removed in later days now that legal challenges have been overcome.

New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu said: "There's a better way to use the property these monuments are on and a way that better reflects who we are."

Nationally, the debate over Confederate symbols has become heated since nine parishioners were killed at a black church in South Carolina in June 2015.

South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its statehouse grounds in the weeks after, and several Southern cities have since considered removing monuments.

The University of Mississippi took down its state flag because it includes the Confederate emblem.

Majority black

New Orleans is a majority African-American city although the number of black residents has fallen since Hurricane Katrina drove many people from the city in 2005.

The majority black city council in 2015 voted 6-1 to approve plans to take the statues down, but legal battles over their fate have prevented the removal until now, said Mr Landrieu, who proposed the monuments’ removal and rode to victory twice with overwhelming support from the city’s black residents.

People who want the Confederate memorials removed say they are offensive artefacts honouring the region’s slave-owning past.

Others call the monuments part of the city’s history and said they should be protected historic structures.

Robert Bonner (63), who said he is a Civil War re-enactor, was there to protest over the statue's removal.

“I think it’s a terrible thing,” he said.

“When you start removing the history of the city, you start losing money. You start losing where you came from and where you’ve been.”

Since officials announced the removals, contractors hired by the city have faced death threats and intimidation in this deep South city where passions about the Civil War still run deep.

Mr Landrieu refused to say who the city would be using to remove the statues because of the intimidation attempts.

300th anniversary

He said the memorials do not represent his city as it approaches its 300th anniversary next year. The mayor said the city would remove the monuments, store them and preserve them until an “appropriate” place to display them is determined.

“The monuments are an aberration,” he said.

“They’re actually a denial of our history and they were done in a time when people who still controlled the Confederacy were in charge of this city and it only represents a four-year period in our 1,000-year march to where we are today.”

The first memorial to come down, the Liberty Place monument, was an 1891 obelisk honouring the Crescent City White League.

Mr Landrieu has called the Liberty Place monument “the most offensive of the four” and said it was erected to “revere white supremacy”.

He added: “If there was ever a statue that needed to be taken down, it’s that one,” he said.

AP