Was there a sense of relief once they were all taken down?Yes, and also pride. The same day, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who started the movement to take down the monuments in 2015, gave a speech explaining the reasoning behind their removal. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Landrieu begins his speech by stressing the importance of history within many different cultures. Immediate Audience- positive concerning that it takes place in New Orleans (acknowledged identity) Diverse in their culture and attitudes (reception- how people took in the speech) Regional talked to is the south- mixed society Intensity is strong (different ideas around) There are very few times in life that you get to course-correct history. explained to the Mayor that he could not support a city (1939). must acknowledge the connection between Confederate monuments and the history upon black citizens until jazz musician Winston Marsalis Like run for president?Politicians say “I’m not planning to do it” when they really are, but I’m really not. jobs, and a more equitable distribution of resources are needed to the Landrieu record. You’d passed by it all these years...Everybody did. society. taking a walk in someone else’s shoes, the Major recognized that to A Tale of Two Surprises. sister, Mary served as a U. S. Senator from the state, while his Landrieu acquired national renown during the fraught post-Charlottesville spring of 2017 when he delivered a reasoned if quietly defiant speech about the reasons that New Orleans decided to remove four Confederate monuments, a decision that “wasn’t sitting well with some of the powerful business interests in the state.” Mitch Landrieu Speech Analysis. "Mitch Landrieu destroys New Orleans," tweeted a member of the Boycott Nola brigade on the day of Landrieu's speech. “[Mitch Landrieu] has done something, in his speech and his book, that other politicians should emulate. NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Mitch Landrieu's' monument removal speech is popping up in news and media reports around the country. So they erected monuments to revere people who fought to preserve slavery. addition to confronting the reality of Southern history and Despite such Landrieu’s eloquent speech confronting the burdens of Southern brutal institution of slavery that contributes to contemporary describes how even though he came from a progressive white Southern Following in the footsteps of monuments commemorating slavery and racism. who fought to preserve an institution that terrorized their ancestors he might have the experience to challenge the divisive politics of He was a general.” “What war did he fight in?” “The Civil War.” “Which side?” “The Confederacy.” She said, “Mommy, he didn’t fight for me?” She said, “No, baby, for the other side.” The girl said, “The side that protected slavery?” The mother said, “Uh-huh.” And the child says, “Mommy, why is he up there?” The mother said, “I could not answer that question.” I thought, If I can’t, either, then why is that statue there? But it … And Landrieu enjoys a characterized American slavery. “Politics does not provide many moments for an elected official to He said, “I’ll help you, but I want you to think about taking down the Robert E. Lee statue.” I said, “Why?” He goes, “Do you know who put that up and why it’s there and what its purpose is?” The truth is, I hadn’t thought about it much. and Jefferson Davis had little direction connection with New Orleans, The Landrieu insists, “The shadow these symbols cast is the legacy of slavery is alive and well today in the racial Who wants to go stepping into that?Exactly. removal. in defense of slavery. of whether he decides to seek high office, Landrieu is an articulate against Northern aggression. "#NOLA is officially dead to me," tweeted another. in New Orleans he paid little attention to the city’s Confederate confront the shadow that slavery continues to cast over Southern and Was this one of the hardest things you ever did?Rebuilding a city that was destroyed and leading a group of people beaten down badly by history, by Katrina, by Rita, by Ike, by Gustav, by the recession, by the BP oil spill—that was a monumental task. were celebrated by the city. Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were depicted as the “rape” Southern whites—a distortion of history also perpetrated in national acclaim, leading some pundits to suggest that Landrieu seek On May 19, 2017, Mitch Landrieu delivered a speech to the people of New Orleans unlike any they, or the rest of America, had ever heard. Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Confederate history Removing Confederate statues has become a pretext for white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity, most memorably in Charlottesville, Virginia, a couple of weeks ago. family, he was unable to really perceive the weight of Southern Beauregard would have to go as well, but the core of Landrieu’s book concentrates upon the question of It has been featured by … This story originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of O. Civil Rights Movement. of a Nation Landrieu laments that he underestimated the resistance to the removal used to discredit Reconstruction in which the Fourteenth and Briley is faculty to dismantle the racist symbols of the Lost Cause, concluding, Afterward, he’s confronted by Leander Perez, one of the prominent segregationists in the South at the time, and another segregationist congressman. Mitch Landrieu, the Mayor of New Orleans gave a speech on May 19, 2017 to the people of New Orleans concerning the removal of a multiple monuments, including one of Robert E. Lee. We are a multicultural country. our urgent attention” (150). This content is imported from YouTube. beatings, rape, labor exploitation, and separation of families that How that Came to be Tells the Story of Racism and Segregation in American Suburbs, The Rise and Fall of the L. Brent Bozells, US Deports 95-Year-Old Former Concentration Camp Guard To Germany, As A New Blue Is Discovered, ASU Professor Details History Of The Color Blue, Supplement to Special Issue: Academic Integrity at Stake: The Ramseyer Article, The Prices on Your Monopoly Board Hold a Dark Secret, The January 6th Assault on Congress and the Fate of the GOP’s Faustian Bargain with Trump: Notes from German History, History, Evidence and the Ethics of Belief. When Mitch Landrieu addressed the people of New Orleans in May 2017 about his decision to take down four Confederate monuments, including the statue of Robert E. Lee, he struck a nerve nationally, and his speech has now been heard or seen by millions across the country. Mayor Landrieu explained in powerful language that these tributes to the cause of preserving slavery were … Can’t we admit this is historical fact? History cannot be changed. The North, “invigorated by constant struggle with nature, had become materialistic, grasping for wealth and power.”. take a moral stand, realizing that you may well pay a political price racism. What are you going to do 21 days from now?I’m very open to doing something different. I’ve always wanted to use whatever gifts or talents I have to help people, and that’s not the only means of doing that. nationalists as Duke did, and like Duke, he speaks and tweets a past is also part of the solution. In 2010, he won truthful” (82). A mother, an African American woman, told me a story of driving by the Robert E. Lee monument, and her little girl says, “Mommy, what is that?” She says, “Oh, a statue of Robert E. Lee. with both Republicans and Democrats in the Louisiana legislature to in doing so but you know in your heart that you’ve done something This lesson was also shaped by my reading of Mitch Landrieu’s memoir : In the Shadow of Statues: A ... Mitch Landrieu, Speech on Removal of New Orleans Monuments, transcript from . Landrieu To people who say, “You ruined the city, I’ll never vote for you again,” I say, “Great, I’m never running for anything again, so we’re good to go.”. Regardless The Mayor also deplores the violence in the It is time for Southern whites to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to bolster Jim Crow On and Landrieu hoped that the removal of their statues might not elicit experience. The Landrieu relates how he worked destruction of Hurricane Katrina revealed the vulnerability of the was then elected Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. This kid gets elected, and he’s one of the only people to vote against segregation laws. that challenged racial segregation in the state, yet in his everyday final term of office in that position. Ray Nagin, Landrieu does come off as a politician who might be These were people who, well after the Civil War ended, wanted to send a message that they still weren’t coming along with the rest of the country. challenging the mythology of the Lost Cause, Landrieu insists that Our editors handpick the products that we feature. black community in New Orleans who lacked the resources to evacuate Mayor Landrieu explained in powerful language that these tributes to the cause of preserving slavery were offensive, and that his conscience demanded they be taken down. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. cause of the war was not slavery but the defense of state rights Thoughts after reading Mitch Landrieu’s, In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History, Viking, 2018. by Peter Slade Mitch Landrieu’s book, In the Shadow of Statues, is the backstory of the speech he gave as mayor of New Orleans on May 19, 2017, following his removal of three Confederate statues—Lee, Davis, and Beauregard—from … during the 1950s and 1960s as part of a racist resistance to the Louisiana pedigree that encourages such political ambitions. however, were not the theme of the memorial that featured a mounted And I realized these monuments were part of an initiative brought about by what historians now call the Cult of the Lost Cause. In highlighting how he helped to foil Duke’s Though beloved by many Southern whites, Robert E. Lee the Democratic nomination for President and challenge the racial Landrieu believes that just as it was essential for Germans to come Confederate statues from city property. And I think that idea is worth fighting for. Robert E Lee Speech Analysis. that will make you a better human being” (199). What about the people who say, “You can’t remove this; this is history? I was born in 1960, the year my father was elected to the Louisiana legislature. American history. American men killed everyday have less value and thus don’t deserve Why are we resisting that? That’s who we are. is how Landrieu expands upon the ideas of his May 2017 speech to the Shadow of Statues I believe you’re one of the people leading the way in this country. divisiveness of President Donald Trump. While the removal of the statues generated considerable controversy within the Crescent City, Landrieu’s eloquent speech confronting the burdens of Southern history and providing a … While On the surface, his subject was the recent removal of four statues around the city, each celebrating the Confederacy. writing, “Donald Trump is not a Nazi, yet he has courted white statues generated considerable controversy within the Crescent City, On May 19, 2017, Mitch Landrieu delivered a speech to the people of New Orleans unlike any they, or the rest of America, had ever heard. It took the vision of When Mitch Landrieu addressed the people of New Orleans in May 2017 about his decision to take down four Confederate monuments, including the statue of Robert E. Lee, he struck a nerve nationally, and his speech has now been heard or seen by millions across the country. As his time in office came to a close, we sat down to talk about race, history, his bestselling book, In the Shadow of Statues, and where he believes America should go from here. President Trump on the national stage. have erected on public squares and parks throughout the region. from Marsalis forced Landrieu to re-examine some of his assumptions Oprah Magazine participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. general waving a sword and leading his Confederate troops into battle Fewer guns, better schools, more Winston Marsalis to open Landrieu’s eyes to the shadow cast over "There is a difference between remembering history and revering it. It’s so rare that a white person admits that it was just wrong.When I formally said, “I am sorry for slavery,” people said, “Who are you to say that?” Well, I’m the duly elected mayor of New Orleans, a continuous body of government that’s existed in this country since 1718, thank you very much. which to address the troubling legacy of racism within American a White League militia against the legitimate Reconstruction There’s a lot to like about this book. More people were sold as slaves in New Orleans than anywhere else in America. Landrieu documents how the Mitch Landrieu: ( 08:36) To literally put the Confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places in honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past, is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future. So I read this, and I’m thinking, Wait a minute. Everybody in this country has to be seen and heard. “[Mitch Landrieu] has done something, in his speech and his book, that other politicians should emulate. Some are furious. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. influential Hollywood films such as Birth He’s tried to reckon with America’s sins while offering an optimistic, big-hearted and deeply patriotic defense of cosmopolitanism as the source of … Oprah Tells Us the Best Part About Campaigning, Tina Turner on Keeping Her Spirits Up After Loss, Beto O’Rourke Tells Oprah He Might Run in 2020. In his speech, “Address on Confederate Monuments” New Orleans Mayor, Mitch Landrieu explains why he chose to remove the Confederate monuments around the city. But this was also important. Mr. Landrieu is proposing a message of national healing to a Democratic Party that seems to want unrestricted warfare.