NEW ORLEANS – On Sunday, Take ‘em Down Nola marched through the French Quarter, demanding the city take down more monuments.
Dozens gathered in Lafayette Square for a march to five different monuments in the Central Business District and the French Quarter.
“We are committed to continuing our protest, to show people and explain to people that these things are offensive to black people especially, and should be offensive to democratically minded people,” Malcolm Suber, spokesperson for Take ‘em Down Nola, said.
The first two statues the crowd marched to was Henry Clay and John McDonogh in Lafayette Square. The organization also wants the statue of Edward Douglas White to come down, along with Bienville’s statue and the statue of Andrew Jackson in Jackson Square.
“We are all about education. So, we want people to know why we are out here. And we are out here exposing to the world that the job is not done, that the mayor shortchanged us, and we are demanding a complete job,” Suber said.
Plenty people around the city who think taking down these monuments is unnecessary.
Charles Marsala of Save NOLA Heritage is one of them and says there is an alternative.
“Instead of saying ‘we are going to put these into a museum,’ I often thought the solution was to put descriptive plaques. You go to other places, there are a tremendous amount of words written on these plaques to tell you what the person did and what was going on. It's more of an education idea, than it is a removal idea,” Marsala said.
The following is a statement from the founder of the Monumental Task Committee:
“The target list released by Take ‘Em Down NOLA proves the slippery slope is real. The MTC encourages tolerance and respect for all monuments. This revisionist movement to erase and rewrite history must end.”