It was the second of four such statues or monuments targeted for removal as the city seeks to erase the vestiges of an era that celebrated racism.
Workers in New Orleans in the early hours of Thursday took down a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. It was the second of four such statues or monuments targeted for removal as city officials seek to erase the vestiges of an era that celebrated white supremacy and racism.
Crews, wearing masks to cover their faces, worked under a heavy police presence starting at 3 a.m. to dismantle the statue, which was erected in 1911, nearly 50 years after the end of the war, and commissioned by the Jefferson Davis Memorial Association.
It was removed from its pedestal by crane and loaded onto a trailer to be crated and stored at an undisclosed city warehouse, Tyronne B. Walker, a city spokesman, said in an email on Thursday.
“The city is in the process of determining a more appropriate place to display the statues post-removal, such as a museum or other site, where they can be placed in their proper historical context from a dark period of American history, ” he wrote.
He said the law enforcement officials took extra precautions because of “consistent threats, harassment and intimidation tactics” surrounding the removal.
Some protesters carrying Confederate flags shouted “cowards” and “totalitarianism” as it was removed, The Times-Picayune reported .
Removing the remaining statues requires the use of a heavy crane, and the mayor had told The Times-Picayune that every crane company in the region had received threats.
Other works expected to be removed are a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that has stood in a traffic circle, named Lee Circle, in the city’s central business district since 1884, and an equestrian statue of P. G. T. Beauregard, a Confederate general. Because of the threat of violence, the city would not release details on the timeline for when the remaining two statues would be removed.
Workers last month dismantled an obelisk that 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 against the racially integrated New Orleans police and state militia.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in a statement on Thursday: “These monuments have stood not as historic or educational markers of our legacy of slavery and segregation, but in celebration of it. I believe we must remember all of our history, but we need not revere it. To literally put the Confederacy on a pedestal in some of our most prominent public places is not only an inaccurate reflection of our past, it is an affront to our present, and a bad prescription for our future.”
No final decision has been made about what will replace the Confederate monuments, Mr. Walker wrote.
The debate over Confederate symbols has taken center stage since nine people were killed at a black church in South Carolina in June 2015. South Carolina removed the Confederate battle flag, which flew at its State House for more than 50 years, and other Southern cities have considered taking down monuments.
In December 2015, the City Council voted 6 to 1 to remove the statues. In January 2016, a federal judge dismissed an attempt by preservation groups and a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans to keep them.
