New Orleans Council Votes To Remove Four Confederate Monuments

The New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 Thursday to remove four monuments commemorating the Confederacy.

In addition to the the General Robert E. Lee statue at St. Charles Avenue's Lee Circle, statues of General P.G.T. Beauregard at the entrance of City Park, Confederate president Jefferson Davis in Mid-City and the obelisk dedicated to the Battle of Liberty Place at the foot of Iberville Street will all come down and be removed.

New Orleans' Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who has backed the removal of the monuments, said, "The time surely comes when justice must and will be heard. The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity."

Councilwoman Stacy Head, the only vote against the measure, said she thought it would do nothing to break down the city's social and economic barriers.

The four statues were erected in between 1884 and 1915.