New Orleans to take down Confederate statues

New Orleans on Monday removed a Confederate statue erected to honor a league representing white people that ousted a biracial government after the Civili War.

Workers wearing bulletproof vests took down the Liberty Place Monument in the early hours of Monday, The Associated Press reported. It had been set up in 1891 to honor the Crescent City White League.

“If there was ever a statue that needed to be taken down, it’s that one,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D).

He said the Liberty Place Monument is the “most offensive” of four statues set to come down in New Orleans. 

Two of the others honor Gen. Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, the military leader and president, respectively, of the Confederate states.

“All of what we will do in the next days will be designed to make sure that we protect everybody, that the workers are safe, the folks around the monuments are safe and that nobody gets hurt,” Landrieu said, referencing contract workers who have received death threats over their job removing the statues.

Statues and flags that include Confederate symbols have come under new scrutiny since the 2015 mass shooting at a historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C., that killed nine people. The shooting was committed by a self-described white supremacist, who has since been sentenced to death for the crime.

Following the shooting, South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its statehouse grounds.