WHATEVER the inhabitants of New Orleans think about the monuments to Confederate bigwigs that dot their city, many felt relief, on the afternoon of May 19th, that the last of the four most prominent statues was at last being taken down. The removal of Robert E. Lee, who for the last 133 years has surveyed downtown New Orleans from a pedestal atop a busy traffic circle on the city’s grandest street, marked the end of an exhausting ordeal that has lasted nearly two years.
The push to take down the four offending relics, led by Mitch Landrieu, the mayor, seemed to come out of nowhere in 2015. It was approved with relatively little controversy by the city council; the statues should have been gone within weeks. But then came the lawsuits, challenging the statues’ removal. As the process dragged on, it became more divisive. The city struggled to find a contractor willing to take the monuments down; one backed out after receiving death threats. When another was found, the city took extraordinary measures to protect his identity, as well...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2qGrduu
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