Continuing with the end-of-year tradition that started during his presidency, former President Barack Obama shared a list of his favorite books, movies and songs of 2018 on Friday.
Featured in that list is "In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History" by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
Landrieu's first-person memoir, released in March, gives insight to the decision making, political process and ultimate removal of three statues of Confederate leaders in New Orleans.
An obelisk that memorialized an uprising against Reconstruction-era police in New Orleans after the Civil War was also removed in the effort.
The book was named one of Time magazine's "Best Memoirs of 2018." Locally, however, its release was more controversial, coming less than a year after what Landrieu calls the "crisis" to take down the four monuments throughout the first half of 2017.
“The statues were not honoring history, or heroes,” Landrieu writes. “They were created as political weapons, part of an effort to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity.”
Obama first announced he was reading Landrieu's book seven months ago, and wrote in a Facebook post that it reminded him of when he eulogized Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was one of nine church-goers slain by white supremacist Dylann Wolf in Charleston.
Landrieu took a national tour to promote the book after its release in March, visiting cities like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. in the final months of his term as mayor.
The decision to remove the monuments came among bitter protests and counter-protests between pro-removal groups like 'Take 'Em Down NOLA' and those supporting the slogan "heritage not hate."
You can see Obama's full list of 2018 favorites here.