On April 24, 2017, the city of New Orleans, the Chocolate City, began removing monuments and statues honoring the Confederacy.
As an aside, and lest you think I’m a racist for describing New Orleans as a Chocolate City – those are not my words. They are the famous words of then-Mayor Ray Nagan, explaining that after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans would rebuild and be majority black. The honorable former mayor is now better known as federal inmate No. 32751. He wasn’t sentenced to 10 years in the federal pen for being black. He was/is a crook.
The city began by removing an obelisk “which was erected in 1891 to honor members of the Crescent City White League who in 1874 fought in the Reconstruction-era Battle of Liberty Place.”
“Other monuments expected to be removed include a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in a traffic circle, named Lee Circle, in the city’s central business district since 1884; an equestrian statue of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general; and a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.”
Now, you would think that the workers who were charged with dismantling and removing these symbols of racism and intolerance would be praised and cheered for doing the right thing. You’d be wrong. Instead they were forced to don helmets and flak jackets to protect themselves from potentially violent protesters. The also wore scarves to hide their identities, and had a police escort. Makes no sense to me – but I’m not a lunatic black activist.
When I heard that these and many other monuments were being taken down for the same reason, the first thing that came to mind was the late Democrat icon Robert “Sheets” Byrd (hat tip Rush). He was, of course, a long time U.S. senator from West Virginia, but also a member of the Ku Klux Klan. And not just any member – he was a recruiter, a Kleagle.