Landrieu Pushing His Book on the Backs of the Confederate Monuments

I'm writing this post prior to Mitch Landrieu's appearance tonight on 60 Minutes; I don't plan to watch.

Mayor Landrieu is publicizing his new book which is out March 20 and as the mayor blusters and pontificates all over the media, one can't help but consider how he relished the monument drama as fuel for future book sales.

This week he spoke to the press about his plans for the sites in New Orleans that previously held Confederate monuments.  It's been about a year since Landrieu had four monuments removed: the monument at Liberty Place was taken in the dead of night. In the following days and weeks Landrieu also removed those of  Jefferson Davis, P.G.T. Beauregard, and Robert E. Lee, leaving blighted public areas and empty pedestals in their place. 

During Mardi Gras, he placed a ring of porta-potties around Lee Circle.

The whole issue still makes me angry when I think about it.  My position has always been that these monuments represent history and to destroy public art does not change that history or make it disappear.  Landrieu never engaged the opposing side in any of his plans, an effort that certainly would have been better for the city and reduced tension.  But that wouldn't have sold as many books.

At these sites, Mayor Landrieu plans to place an American flag where the Jefferson Davis monument stood.  As for Lee Circle, he's deferring that to others to decide.  At the Beauregard site, the City Park Improvement Association will landscape and clean up the area and the pedestal will be removed.  Nothing will go where the Liberty Place monument was.

Landrieu says that those companies who didn't make their equipment available to him to remove the statues were practicing "industrial racism" and he continues to insult the ancestors of a great number of southerners:

"Really what these monuments were, were a lie," Landrieu told Cooper on "60 Minutes. "Robert E. Lee was used as an example to send a message to the rest of the country, and to all the people that lived here, that the Confederacy was a noble cause. And that's just not true."

It's difficult to know what to say to people who refuse to see both sides of history.  And I'm a little embarrassed for him for being so blind and uninformed.

The entire monument removal fiasco was questionable on many levels and many questioned various legal aspects of the project, including who paid for the removal, why city workers were used to remove the monuments, and who was behind the foundation that funded part of the removal.

He said the monuments belong in museums but a year later they are still crated up in some city warehouse.

That Landrieu is kicking the can down the road with regard to the placement of the monuments themselves should surprise no one.  As Mike Bayham points out, Landrieu wants to go on his book tour as the guy who removed the monuments, "not rearranged them."

But you can rest assured that whenever (or if ever) Davis, et al leave the city warehouse, Landrieu will be basking in the klieg lights of the media to criticize wherever they go, because that’s his racket and sole source of relevancy in the national media. 

Instead of transferring the statues to an appropriate historic venue that would secure and maintain them, New Orleans is going to be treated to a new round of acrimonious bickering in shouting matches euphemistically labeled “listening sessions”, with the fringes of both sides being prominently featured by the media. Dragging things out benefits Landrieu’s national stature, though not the incoming New Orleans government, which should be focused on the quality of life matters that will be left festering on their doorstep. 

While New Orleans is one of the most historic, vibrant, and beautiful cities in the South, it has suffered greatly under Landrieu's tenure.  Crime has been out of control and the mayor has made little effort to do anything about that.  He is now a lame duck as he prepares to step aside for the new mayor elect, LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat who won the election with 60.4% of the vote.

One hopes that the incoming administration will deal with this issue with more finesse than Landrieu has done.



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The Caddo Commission Opens the Proverbial Can of Worms

The Caddo Commission meeting last week, on October 19, was a choreographed waste of taxpayer time as obviously the vote on the Confederate monument was already in long before the meeting ever took place.  The vote to remove the monument was 7-5, but everyone knew two things going in to the meeting:

1. The vote would be to remove; every Commissioner had already signaled their vote.  There was no suspense whatsoever and no use for the citizen comments.  The intention to remove was made perfectly clear when the Commission rejected the recommendation of their own Citizens Advisory Committee. 

2. The vote would be purely symbolic.  The Commission knows that the monument does not belong to them - this is not contested.  The Commission also knows that there is a pending lawsuit filed by John Settle for the purpose of determining who owns the land underneath the monument.

The forerunner of the Caddo Commission, The Caddo Parish Police Jury, donated that parcel of land to the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1903, a donation which is recorded in the Police Jury minutes.  That no property deed was ever executed is the Parish's evidence that they own the land, but in fact, the heirs of Larkin Edwards may be the owners of that parcel and the entire courthouse square as no deed for that entire block can be found either.

It's a can of worms.

Via KTBS:

 The official parish position is that they own the land -- that the courthouse has been there since the early part of the 1900s and ownership has passed to the parish through what amounts to frontier rights. An opposing position is that the courthouse square belongs to the descendants of Larkin Edwards, a friend of the Caddo Indians who sold much of the land that was the original Shreveport.  

There is no record that proves Edwards ever sold the land that is now the courthouse square. Early maps show it was to be a Public Square.

Women weren't allowed to vote and had virtually no property rights in 1903 so it's not surprising that no deed was issued.

And what of "squatter's rights," or adverse possession?

This one will be a tangled knot for the judges and attorneys to unravel and is sure to play out in the courts for years -- all at a cost to the Caddo taxpayer.

The cost to move the monument will be exorbitant.  Despite claims in the meeting last week that the monument is "just a piece of concrete," it is in fact a priceless and irreplaceable work of art, regardless of how one feels about the subject matter.

The 20' x 20' base is indeed concrete, but Clio, The Muse of History, is carved from white marble and the four generals are carved from hard gray Texas granite.  There is a 12' tall column upon which a youthful soldier of white marble stands, and he is about 7' tall.

Much, much more than a piece of concrete.

The ownership of the monument is not contested.  It belongs to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a heritage organization founded in 1894.  The UDC is a non-profit organization and is currently raising money for their legal defense fund.  You can contribute either online or with a check.  Go to the UDC website or Facebook page.

At any rate, the meeting on October 19 was pure choreography.  The room was standing room only filled with "citizens" who wanted the monument removed.  To someone who had not been paying attention to this process, one would believe the entire city wants this monument removed.  At one point in the meeting, Caddo Commission President Steven Jackson asked those in the room in favor of removal to stand and I'd say 95% of the room stood up.  Pure choreography (I doubt he would have suggested that had he not already known the answer).

Some of the citizen comments were simply outlandish nonsense, some had valid points or concerns, and maybe the most moving was the 81-year old woman in the wheelchair who spoke for removal and reminisced about how dangerous it was for blacks back in those days.

I heard one comment after another about "Bloody Caddo" - a phrase I've seldom heard in my 58 years living here.  I've read lots of history about our neighboring parishes, Caddo and Bossier, and know plenty of atrocities took place here as in many other places in the South, but I've never heard "Bloody Caddo" mentioned by so many people in so short a time as in that meeting.  Was that coincidence?

One woman came up and spoke about the stench of the smoke and blood, and about brains being blown out, body parts in trees, and such.

It went on for a couple of hours and it was after 6:00 before the Commissioners began putting their two-cents on record, but of course it was already done.

It was a circus, a sham.

Within hours the United Daughters of the Confederacy filed for an injunction to stop the removal as everyone knew would happen.

The Caddo Commission resolution for removal does not say when the monument will be moved, where it will be moved or stored, and does not mention any kind of structural engineer to examine the monument in order to prevent damage.  Since they don't own the monument the Commission (aka taxpayer) will be responsible for any damages cause in the move.  They will also, in all likelihood, be responsible for damages incurred as the monument loses status on the National Historic Register because of the removal.

Commission President Steven Jackson said the attorney fees will not cost anything as legal action will be handled "in house" but don't we pay the salary for the parish attorney now?  And if he thinks the Commission won't have to outsource some of this legal work and hire an attorney, he's way off the mark.  This is going to go on for years and be very, very expensive.

The only winners will be the attorneys.

You can thank the Commission for that.  By the way, they will be bringing up millage renewals soon - remember that as you consider how prudent this Commission is with your tax dollars.


Anyone want to start looking for the heirs of Larkin Edwards?  Start here.

Previous Posts on This Blog:
On Mysterious Flowers and Monuments (9/17/17)

Caddo Monument Rally Bringing Outside Agitators to Shreveport (9/16/17)

The Caddo Parish Confederate Monument is Not Being Moved (9/10/17)

Mitch's Masked Men Scrape Jefferson Davis from his Pedestal (5/11/17)

In Defending Jefferson Davis, Arlene Barnum is a Class Act (4/30/17)

List of Offensive Monuments, Streets, Names in NOLA ...is Puzzling (4/23/17)
Confederate Monument Removal Scheduled for 1:00 a.m. Monday (4/22/17)
The Confederate Battle Flag Rises Again in South Carolina (2/6/17)
Can the Violence in NOLA be Alleviated with Equity Circles? (12/26/16)
Shreveport Work of Art Still Needs Funding for Restoration (10/22/16)
Can You Help Clio? Restoration Fundraiser is Now Underway (9/5/16)
Epperson Demands UDC Remove Confederate Monument Within the Year (7/6/16)
Epperson's Continued Attack on the Confederate Monument (6/22/16)
Report from the Caddo Commission Meeting in Which Ken Epperson Blasts "Jake-Leg Bloggers" (6/9/16)
Caddo Parish Confederate Monument Under Attack (5/19/16)
Joseph Welsh Texada's Life Mattered Too (1/31/16)
The Heartbreaking Removal of the New Orleans Confederate Monuments (1/17/16

A Courthouse Compromise to Appease All

Caddo Courthouse interior

There are few historians in our area I admire more than John Andrew Prime.  Mr. Prime was recently a member of the Citizen's Advisory Committee appointed by the Caddo Parish Commission for the purpose of determining the fate of the contested Caddo Parish Confederate monument which stands on the north side of the courthouse on a small parcel of land given to the United Daughters of the Confederacy by the Caddo Parish Police Jury in 1903.

That Citizens Advisory Committee voted to make a recommendation to the Caddo Parish Commission to leave the Confederate monument in place and to erect two additional monuments: one to Reconstruction and one to Civil Rights.  This recommendation was the result of months of town hall meetings with the citizens of Caddo parish and the result of study of hundreds of emails and comments from these citizens.

In the end, the Commission rejected the hard work of the committee and in a recent meeting voted to move the Confederate monument.

Mr. Prime, on the other hand, a voice of reason in all this madness, is on the right track.

Mr. Prime realizes that a community divided can only fall upon itself.

Mr. Prime has proposed a grand compromise.

If a Confederate monument standing on courthouse grounds insults Lady Justice and impedes the right of a fair trial for some of our citizens, then we should move the courthouse.

It's not a folly or a whim.

It makes good sense.

Mr. Prime wrote in The Shreveport Times on September 20, 2017:

On the other hand, removing the courthouse to a bigger, better location provides a remedy for the justice complaints and most other ills opposed by the howling anti-history mob. Turning the current courthouse into a museum, dedicated in part to telling the local story of the Civil War, the Reconstruction that led to bloody decades that led in turn to today's era of Civil Rights, also offers an alternative sure to kindle further public debate and discourse, as well as a tourism opportunity of the first order. No doubt the public, as well as historians from many walks of life in Shreveport and Caddo Parish, could offer suggestions for the building.  

 An alternative to building a new courthouse might be to repurpose a building on land already indebted to the city or parish, with copious parking, easily accessible by modern highways. 

What about Mall St. Vincent, the recipient of public largess recently through $16 million in upgrades by the city, owned by Canadian developers following insolvency declarations and reportedly available almost for the asking? It's right off I-49 and I-20, has tons of parking, and is easily accessible from most parts of Shreveport.

How about that!  A solution to appease all sides!

Brilliant!

The Caddo Parish Courthouse is actually outdated for modern use and a new courthouse is certainly needed.  The current building is architecturally and historically significant and has been renovated through the years to include new elevators, plumbing, and electrical upgrades.  It's perfect for a museum.

Why not use currently owned Caddo parish land on Cross Bayou for the site of a new courthouse?  Shreveport has a Triple A bond rating which means we can borrow money at a low interest rate - why not use that?  And I'm willing to bet that private investors would even step up to invest in this civil compromise if for no other reason than to put an end to this issue that is certainly going to cause terrible division within our city.

We don't want to be New Orleans.

If this monument controversy goes forward it will ensnare the city in years of litigation; it's already in the courts thanks to John Settle's lawsuit, but even if that is dismissed, as the Caddo Commission has requested, that won't end the issue of who owns the land under the monument.  This will go on for years and only enrich the lawyers.

The Commission rejected the first compromise offer which the Citizen's Advisory Committee proposed.  Certainly they will have the good sense to entertain and at least explore the idea of a new Caddo Courthouse which would benefit the parish and appease both sides of the monument issue.

Should the courthouse be relocated, the current building could be a museum with exhibits dedicated to Civil Rights, famous Caddo citizens, the Caddo Indians, and even Larkin Edwards who owned the land upon which the courthouse sits.  Caddo Commissioner Matthew Linn even suggested this at one of the Commission work sessions - his suggestion was to turn the upper floor of the courthouse into a museum.  Why not the entire building?! We can even erect a monument on the south side of the courthouse to Civil Rights, as recommended by the Citizens Advisory Committee.  There is no monument on that side.

This is the potential for organic growth which Shreveport so desperately needs to embrace and will be a chance to assist in the revitalization of downtown. We could even add some retail shops, a coffee shop, a gift shop...the possibilities are there.

But mostly, it's a chance for us to come together.  We can be different.  We can unite.

Are we courageous enough to do it?

SIGIS Raising Money for the Confederate Monument

The ladies of the United Daughters of the Confederacy have responded to John Settle's lawsuit filed to determine ownership of the land under the Caddo Parish Confederate monument.

Via The Shreveport Times:

The Shreveport chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has thrown down its first marker challenging any move by Caddo Parish government to remove the Confederate monument from courthouse grounds. The UDC chapter declared in a court filing that it owns both the monument and the land the monument stands on at the Caddo Courthouse and, as a result, that the parish cannot legally move the 101-year-old edifice.

Settle filed a lawsuit in Caddo District court last month although his standing to file suit is unclear as he clearly is not a Daughter nor a Commissioner.  Settle named both the UDC and the Caddo Commission as defendants in his suit.

The Caddo Commission has asked the judge to dismiss the suit.

Whether the judge dismisses the suit or not, the issue of ownership has been ongoing for years and perhaps now is the time to put that to rest.

Through the years I've had many friends of this blog reach out and chip in when I've asked for support for school supplies or other charitable causes.  I have been astounded at the generosity of my readers and although my readership has dwindled some as I took some time off to write my book, there are still plenty of you still here.  I'm very grateful that you have stuck around!

I am donating all PayPal donations through this blog through October to the United Daughters of the Confederacy local chapter for their legal defense fund.

As Confederate monuments across the South are being ripped from their pedestals, I think we can be different and we can show the nation that we can reconcile this issue peaceably and through compromise.  At the very least this monument is unique among the other monuments across the South; its design is unlike any other.  It is a beautiful work of art.

Some contend that moving the monument to a museum would ensure further appreciation for it but what we would lose is the historicity of the monument: it's historic value comes from the site upon which it sits.

I have made a donation to the UDC to their legal defense fund. It will cost money to fight to keep the monument where it is.  You can donate either through this blog (hit the PayPal button on the right sidebar) or you can mail a check to the UDC.  No amount is too small.

If you can't donate anything, please share with someone who can.

A million protests and a million signatures on a petition won't do what dollars can do.  This monument fight is different than any other across the South: the UDC was donated the land in 1903 and now must fight legally to retain it.  This will take money.

Hit the PayPal button on the sidebar.  We can save this monument.

The UDC ladies back in the day built this monument with donations from bake sales and other fundraisers - a dollar here, a nickle there, and we can save it the same way today.  Donate what you can.

UPDATE:
Thank you "Anonymous" for your $25.00!

Previous Posts on This Blog:
On Mysterious Flowers and Monuments (9/17/17)

Caddo Monument Rally Bringing Outside Agitators to Shreveport (9/16/17)

The Caddo Parish Confederate Monument is Not Being Moved (9/10/17)

Mitch's Masked Men Scrape Jefferson Davis from his Pedestal (5/11/17)

In Defending Jefferson Davis, Arlene Barnum is a Class Act (4/30/17)

List of Offensive Monuments, Streets, Names in NOLA ...is Puzzling (4/23/17)
Confederate Monument Removal Scheduled for 1:00 a.m. Monday (4/22/17)
The Confederate Battle Flag Rises Again in South Carolina (2/6/17)
Can the Violence in NOLA be Alleviated with Equity Circles? (12/26/16)
Shreveport Work of Art Still Needs Funding for Restoration (10/22/16)
Can You Help Clio? Restoration Fundraiser is Now Underway (9/5/16)
Epperson Demands UDC Remove Confederate Monument Within the Year (7/6/16)
Epperson's Continued Attack on the Confederate Monument (6/22/16)
Report from the Caddo Commission Meeting in Which Ken Epperson Blasts "Jake-Leg Bloggers" (6/9/16)
Caddo Parish Confederate Monument Under Attack (5/19/16)
Joseph Welsh Texada's Life Mattered Too (1/31/16)
The Heartbreaking Removal of the New Orleans Confederate Monuments (1/17/16

On Mysterious Flowers and Monuments

A friend of mine has a night -blooming cereus that she named Eudora, in honor of course of the famous Southern author Eudora Welty who had one in her own garden and was known for celebrating its buds with all night parties. When my friend's cereus produced buds last week, rather than throw an all night party she sent a group text with a photo. Her message was filled with as much glee as Miss Eudora must have felt at her own blooms.

Miss Eudora has been much on my mind in past weeks as I picked up a volume of her collected stories recently. I have not read any of them in quite some time - since college, perhaps.  One exception would be "A Worn Path" which I use when I teach a creative writing class; other than that, the treasures of "The Wide Net" and "Clytie" have been long forgotten.  I spent several weeks this summer sitting outside under the shade of my magnolia rediscovering Miss Welty's lovely southern prose and relishing the rich atmosphere she creates with her words.

There's nothing more rewarding to me than picking up a book and rediscovering an old, favorite author.  While I read widely, both fiction and non-fiction, my preferences tend to Southern writers. Give me a Rick Bragg memoir, Flannery O'Connor, or even Faulkner and I am consumed with the words.

In the course of writing my biography of Cammie Henry I discovered the short stories of Ada Jack Carver, a bright light in the 1920s but who never produced anything of note after that.  Carver's stories are rich in atmosphere and many have memorable characters such as old Baptiste in "Redbone" who initially seems to be celebrating the birth of a son by going into town to get drunk but there is more to the story...

What is it that makes Southern writers so unique?  Some critics contend that the Southern literary renaissance that began in the 1920s is still ongoing and I tend to agree with that.  When H. L. Mencken declared the south "The Land of the Bozart" and insisted that southern writers had produced nothing of substance, he fired up the pens and typewriters of every warm-blooded southerner who had a desire to prove him wrong.

The literature of the South is as unique and beautiful as its climate and its people.

How long before it is targeted for criticism and banning as the Confederate monuments are?  Is that too much of a stretch?  Look at it this way: critics of the Confederate monuments say that the South lost the war, that the war was treasonous, that the Confederacy held slaves (as if the Union did not), and that the monuments were erected in the Jim Crow period; apparently their point with that last one is that these monuments are intended as some sort of subliminal white supremacy symbol.

This is all fallacious reasoning it seems to me.  These monuments were commissioned to honor the family that fought to protect their homes and their way of life.  And no, "way of life" is not code for slavery.  The way they lived was agrarian, it was slow and peaceful, it was with a work ethic and independent spirit that did not want help from outsiders.  Of course there were bad people who did bad things, but that has been the case throughout history.  Never has an entire culture been targeted because of that as is the case now.

One of our most beloved Southern writers was Harper Lee whose To Kill a Mockingbird is nothing if not a message on equality, tolerance, and dignity.  In Scout Finch we see the innocence of a child who has never been taught to see color in a person and who has never learned hatred or prejudice.  Those things are learned from adults and Atticus Finch's lesson to his children was "put yourself in their skin and walk around in it."  What are we teaching our kids now?

How many of us are living that way now?  How much of our hatred is learned and passed along to others?  How much of this monument mess is just mob mentality?

And where does it end?  People ask that question often, but think about it.  For years overly sensitive lemmings have tried to ban books often citing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Animal Farm, and of course To Kill a Mockingbird among many, many others as offensive in one way or another.

How is that different than monuments?  These books are in public libraries just as monuments are in public places.  What's the difference?

To me, both books and the monuments are works of art and should not be subject to censorship.  I disagreed when the Ten Commandments were removed from courthouses and schools but at least I understood the reasoning behind it ("separation of church and state").  You could point me to a legal position that made that clear.

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying things because of course books don't equate to monuments in literal sense but censorship is censorship wherever it lies.

If our society does not stop with this over sensitive offended culture we are perpetuating there is literally no end to it.  Everything is a target.  If you are traumatized by a monument how could you possibly read Delta Wedding?  When will the book burning start?

Miss Welty abhorred the Civil War: she had one parent from the North and one from the South and she saw what the war did to Mississippi where she grew up (long after the war, of course).  "Ravaged" was the word she used. But she also knew that there are two sides to everything; her parents taught her that.

As we consider the modern debate of monuments, we need to remember that there are two sides to everything and that the men we see carved in these granite and bronze monuments were men - they were not without flaw and they were not perfect but they were human, just like we are, and we can learn from them still and we can admire their dedication to home and family.

The night-blooming cereus blooms only one night of the year. Their blooms are fragile and temporary and draw people to it in admiration and awe, but then it is gone until next year. Welty called them “a naked, luminous, complicated flower,” and maybe that's what our monuments are. Perhaps we all just need to spend more time looking at the beauty of a thing.

Caddo Monument Rally Bringing Outside Agitators to Shreveport

I am watching with unease all of the protests around Confederate monuments, most recently in Dallas and now in Richmond.  I am uneasy about the upcoming rally in Shreveport, not because our monument is in danger (it isn't), but because of outside agitators coming to our city.

Our monument situation is different than monuments in many of these other cities. Most of those are not on private land as ours is.  Shreveport's situation is unique.

That being said, there are still groups planning to agitate and protest in our city comprised primarily of people who don't live here:

A group invoking what it describes as southern cultural heritage and Christian values plans to stage rallies to protest the possible removal of the Confederate monument at the Caddo Parish Courthouse. 

The organizer, who says he represents the Gulf Coast Patriot Network, has used Facebook to get word out about the events planned for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 in language that accuses groups such as Black Lives Matter of engaging in terrorism. The announcement has been widely discussed in social media.  

 The rallies were announced a few days before the Caddo Parish Commission’s Long Range Planning and Special Projects committee voted in favor of removing the Caddo monument. But the committee's vote Tuesday did prompt Rex Dukes to expand his outreach nationally, he said in an interview. Dukes said he founded the Gulf Coast Patriot Network.

While I commend and share their loyalty to heritage and history, I don't condone the outside agitation that comes with these protests.

This is the description of the event from the organizers:

This is a call out to all southern States to all citizen's of the Confederate States of America to come to Shreveport La to stand United as one and to all U.S. citizens that love history and wants it to be preserved and cherished to stand with us to protect our monuments and our southern heritage. This event is to bring about and unite all southern states to protect our history our monuments and our Battle flag and our way of life.we can no longer stand idly by as we are attacked buy the radical groups of ANTIFA, BLM, Cair, MBH, B100 groups that have merged together as one large terrorist group. It is time we show just how United we our as southerners and to show that we will no longer allow the destruction of are country. And to show that the SOUTH HAS RISEN once again to show that we will fight to keep our history and heritage in place.to preserve it for are kids and grand kids and for all the world to see. This event must go down in the history as the largest gathering of southerners to ever happen. GOD Bless Dixie and GOD Bless CSA.

I watched the violence in New Orleans and other cities through many live news feeds.  We don't want that here.

Both the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy have declined to attend these protests as organizations.  It's possible that some members will attend as interested citizens, however.

I now understand better why people in New Orleans didn't want outsiders protesting at their monuments.  In reality, what happens is that this increases the likelihood that the monuments will be removed or vandalized because of the negative attention.

And then there's the Antifa crowd that shows up once these protests are announced. They come with hate and they come with violence.  We do not need that in Shreveport.

I am all for peaceable protest and for the right to protest.  It's the outsiders and the ANTIFA crowd I am against.

Our monument has stood with dignity and peace since 1906.  It has been well preserved and maintained and stands on private ground, enclosed by a fence.  Clio, the muse of history, is pointing to the word Love in her book.  Let's let that continue to be the case.

The Caddo Parish Confederate Monument is Not Being Moved

Former Shreveport attorney John Settle has filed suit in Caddo District Court against the Caddo Parish Commission and the United Daughters of the Confederacy to determine ownership of the land under which the Caddo Parish Confederate Monument has been standing since 1905:

John E. Settle Jr.'s lawsuit asks a Caddo District Court judge to settle a question that has been asked, at least informally, for decades: Who owns the monument land — parish government or the United Daughters of the Confederacy? 

Settle, a former lawyer, filed the lawsuit Monday. In legal terms, the lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment. Named as defendants are the Caddo Parish Commission and Shreveport Chapter 237 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

It is unclear to me what standing Settle has to file this suit, but that's for the court to decide.

My feelings about the nation's monument debate have always been clear.  And while I am a descendant of a Confederate soldier, and while I have lived in the South all of my life, I am sickened as much by the destruction of the art as I am the attempt to hide history.  From a logical standpoint, I can't understand the sudden rush to offense when these monuments have stood for over a hundred years.

But, let's go back to the art for a moment, especially with regard to our Caddo Parish monument. The work on that monument is stunning.  We are privileged to have such a beautiful and unique monument.  I'm going to share a few passages with you from the National Register application for the monument:

Describing Clio:

"...facing inward is a life-size white marble depiction of Clio, the muse of History. She has a classically styled robe draped over her right shoulder that falls gracefully to the ground. Her shoulder-length hair is knotted in the back and captures two sprigs of laurel wreaths bracketing her beautiful idealized face. She peers intently at the pages of a marble book of remembrance about 3' tall on which is written the words “Erected by the

United Daughters of the Confederacy. 1905, Love’s Tribute to Our Gallant Dead. Shreveport Chapter 237”. Her left hand points at the word “Love” on the book.

The key words there are "Tribute to Our Gallant Dead."  How can that be an offense to anyone? The craftsmanship on the monument is stunning and is so evident on the classical detailing of Clio.

In the discussion of the four busts on the monument I believe these remarks about Governor Henry Allen are important:

[On the busts,] "...two important features of sculptor Frank Teich’s work are illustrated: accuracy of uniform depictions and youthful age of soldiers portrayed. The busts of the four generals were realized as three- dimensional representations from consulting Carte-de-visit photographs collected from the war period. The medium is the difficult-to-carve Texas granite. The Caddo Parish Monument likeness of Henry Watkins Allen, Louisiana's Governor and decorated Confederate General, closely resembles his photograph and is the only granite bust and one of only three sculptures of him in Louisiana.

Only one of three?  Shouldn't we treasure that rather than destroy it?  Shouldn't that be something to celebrate rather than deride?

The Caddo Parish Confederate monument is unique when compared to others in that it holds six figures: General Robert E. Lee, General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Louisiana’s Confederate General P.G. T. Beauregard, Louisiana’s Confederate General and Governor Henry Watkins Allen, as well as Clio and the lone soldier atop the 30 foot pedestal.

The beauty of the monument is evident as well as the historic site on which it sits.

With the monuments controversy ignited by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu raging across the country, the Caddo Parish Commission turned the issue of our own monument over to their Long Range Planning Committee who in turn formed a sub-committee made up of local historians, scholars, and citizens.  The sub-committee held numerous town-hall meetings across the city, many of which were heated and went on long after the scheduled end time.

Citizens showed up to these meetings to voice their opinions on the monument; the sub-committee recorded all of the input either through the meetings or through email and written opinions and then the sub-committee presented a final finding to the Long Range Planning Committee.

The recommendation by a 5-3 vote was to keep the monument in place and to erect new signage as well as two flanking monuments: one to Civil Rights and one to the Reconstruction era.  The Long Range Planning Committee was to take it to the full Commission for a vote.

So what happened?

In what some saw as an ambush, an ex-officio member of the committee was brought in to vote in the Long Range Planning Committee meeting on September 5, which turned the vote in favor of removal.  No discussion about flanking monuments or new signage, just removal.

This decision was a slap in the face to the months long process of the sub-committee who had already made their recommendation and voted on presenting it to the full Commission as well as to the citizens who attended meetings and voiced opinions, working within the given system.

Which brings us to Settle's lawsuit.

Mr. Settle contends that if the United Daughters of the Confederacy owns the land under the monument, which is commonly believed, then the Commission has no right to vote on removal at all.

Via KTBS:

There are legal questions about whether the parish has the authority to remove the monument, which has the likeness of a Confederate soldier and the busts of four generals. The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the monument -- but ownership of the land on which it sits in murky. The official parish position is that they own the land -- that the courthouse has been there since the early part of the 1900s and ownership has passed to the parish through what amounts to frontier rights.  

 An opposing position is that the courthouse square belongs to the descendants of Larkin Edwards, a friend of the Caddo Indians who sold much of the land that was the original Shreveport. There is no record that proves Edwards ever sold the land that is now the courthouse square. Early maps show it was to be a Public Square.

The UDC was given use of the land "in perpetuity" in 1903 by the Caddo Parish Police Jury. In 1903 a man's word was his bond and the donation was recorded in the minutes of the Policy Jury along with a large cash donation for the monument.

Now both the Caddo Commission and the United Daughters of the Confederacy are compelled to respond to Settle's suit.  The UDC is a non-profit organization who does not have cash stored away to fight legal battles. They raise money for scholarships, museum contributions, and local charities but as a non-profit they don't keep large cash piles on hand.

When the monument was defaced and damaged last year, the Shreveport Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy asked for donations to restore the monument and benefactors stepped up.  The monument has never been more beautiful than it is today.  Once again, the UDC is asking for help, now, to fight this legal challenge. We can be the city that stands in favor of keeping our public art works in the public square.

If you wish to contribute to the legal fund to help the UDC respond to this lawsuit, you can send a check to them:

Please note on your check that it is for the legal defense fund.

The Caddo Parish Confederate monument is one of our unique artistic treasures and it sits on an historic site.  As a community we should embrace the compromise initially offered by the sub-committee which was arrived at through due process.  The monument should stay right where it is.

We can be the city that sets the example that monuments can be both beautiful and educational at the same time and need not be destroyed or removed.

Mitch's Masked Men Scrape Jefferson Davis From his Pedestal in a Failed Effort to Heal NOLA

Jefferson Davis monument removal: NOLA

There is something about New Orleans today that feels like a crime scene, like something terrible has happened there. It is a raw, sort of apprehensive feeling,  like you shouldn’t be there. It's like a gaping wound.

The twenty-five foot bronze statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was ripped from its granite pedestal about 5 a.m. this morning by city crews hiding behind masks as monument supporters quietly sang “Dixie.” Some stood and solemnly saluted the desecrated statue of Davis as it was moved to the flatbed truck nearby. 

Days before the removal, the monument was virtually imprisoned behind barricades and cyclone fencing after violent clashes between monument supporters and the Antifa/Take ‘Em Down groups.

Crews gathered around the statue just after midnight last night, partially wrapped the statue’s mid-section in green bubble wrap, tied a thick yellow strap around the torso, and lifted the statue, which was slowly spinning, Davis’s arm pointing at both demonstrators and supporters as the statue twirled in mid-air.  A makeshift crate was placed around Davis and crews lowered the statue onto the back of a flatbed truck and hauled it off to an undisclosed warehouse.

Arlene Barnum at Jefferson Davis monument

The pedestal is another matter – it took the untrained city contractors and firefighters several more hours to figure out how to remove the heavy granite pedestal which sat most of the morning with a limp strap around it while engineers phoned into television stations warning that if it was lifted it would probably tip over. It is as if Jefferson Davis himself was mocking them, declaring his right to be there as the inscription on the pedestal reads, “His name is enshrined in the hearts of the people for whom he suffered, and his deeds are forever wedded to immortality.”

Arlene Barnum was there last night. She came to New Orleans as soon as Mayor Landrieu had Liberty Place monument removed two weeks ago; she’s been there standing guard at the Jefferson Davis monument day in and day out with her battle flag and a growing crowd of supporters. 

Arlene is a 63-year old black woman from Oklahoma, an Army veteran, and a woman with Confederate ancestors from north Louisiana. She felt that as Davis was “the one and only president of the Confederacy,” she was obligated to stand with him. As she stood at the monument, Arlene has been called a variety of racial slurs: “Aunt Jemima” seems to have been the most offensive to her. Her truck tires were slashed, her cell phone was knocked from her hand as she tried to live stream, and she has gone without much sleep.

Pastor Larry Beane

Arlene has been dubbed “General Arlene” by some of the other monument supporters standing guard with her, and they have followed her lead. She has encouraged peaceful protest and non-violence.  “Fly those flags high,” she would shout, “Keep ‘em up! Don’t let that flag touch the ground!” Last night she had Pastor Larry Beane from Salem Lutheran Church lead the crowd in a prayer service before the city workers came to dismantle the monument.

Mitch Landrieu spent the evening hobnobbing with donors at the home of Mary Matalin and James Carville for Mitch Landrieu’s NOLA Pac.

This morning Landrieu issued a statement:

After nearly two years of planning and court battles, City officials began the process today of removing the three remaining monuments that prominently celebrate the “Lost Cause of the Confederacy.” The statues that are being removed were erected decades after the Civil War to celebrate the “Cult of the Lost Cause,” a movement recognized across the South as celebrating and promoting white supremacy.

There are four prominent monuments in question. The Battle of Liberty Place monument, which was removed three weeks ago, was erected by the Crescent City White League to remember the deadly insurrection led by white supremacists against the City’s racially integrated police department and government. The statue coming down today is the Jefferson Davis statue on Jefferson Davis Parkway. The statues slated to come down next include the Robert E. Lee statue at Lee Circle and the P.G.T. Beauregard equestrian statue on Esplanade Avenue at the entrance to City Park. 

“Three weeks ago, we began a challenging but long overdue process of removing four statues that honor the ‘Lost Cause of the Confederacy.’ Today we continue the mission,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “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. We should not be afraid to confront and reconcile our past.”

Steps of Jefferson Davis monument

This is a terrible slippery slope and there will be no end to it. Soon New Orleans will be no different and no more unique than any other city in the country once it is cleansed by Landrieu and his cronies. Well, except for the highest murder rate distinction; there's still that. It's clear by his statement that Landrieu totally misunderstands the purpose of the monuments. They were not erected to promote white supremacy but to honor the dead who fought to defend their homes and families.

It's not only that Landrieu is trying to rewrite and erase history, which as we all know is a mistake and impossible, but the fact that he cares so little about the constituency in New Orleans that is troublesome.  Remember, this issue was never put before the voters but was decided by a city council after very limited public input sessions. The outrage and protests on both sides have ripped the city apart and caused many to vow to boycott the city.

Interestingly, it's not the African-American constituency that it so outraged by the monuments but white, liberal young people who mostly make up the Antifa crowd and who have been the most vulgar and violent in all of the live-stream videos we have seen. If it is this group of people we are "cleansing the city" for, they can have it; I want no part of it.

It took no time at all for Google to change its page on the Jefferson Davis monument; by 11:15 or so it was already altered to "Permanently Closed." 

It will of course be interesting to see how fast the murder rate drops in NOLA now that two of the four monuments are down. 

Which will be next? Lee or Beauregard? Anyone want to make bets on how long Andrew Jackson gets to stay? Despite ones feelings about the message the monuments may or may not send, all of these are works of art that were commissioned by the people of the period, paid for by private donations and fundraisers, and presented as a gift to the city. They have stood for decades and have become part of the landscape and pay homage to those who came before us. 

Nothing is left of Liberty Place monument or the Jefferson Davis monument but an ugly concrete slab and ugly videos of TEDNola and Antifa acting in an ugly fashion.

What an improvement.

Previous Posts at DaTechGuy blog:
Mitch Landrieu Begins his Plan to Erase History in NOLA (4/24/17)
Mayor Landrieu's Plans to Remove Monuments in the Dead of Night Exposed (4/17/2017)
The Slippery Slope is Now Open (3/27/17)
A Disappointing Ruling from the 5th Circuit (3/13/17)
Still Fighting the Civil War (2/5/17)
Mayor Mitch Landrieu's Solution to 172 Murders: Equity Circles (12/26/16)
Removal of Historic Confederate Monuments in New Orleans Thwarted -- For Now (12/21/2015)
Report from Louisiana: Update on the Confederate Monument Removal Controversy (1/18/2016)
The Lives of My Ancestors Mattered Too (2/1/2016)
The Ongoing Battle of the Confederate Monuments: An Update (4/18/2016)
Confederate Monuments and Unintended Consequences (6/27/16)
Report from Louisiana: Revisionist History and Confederate Monuments (9/19/2016)
Report from Louisiana: Mass Shooting in New Orleans While Landrieu Fiddles (11/28/2016)



Previous Posts on This Blog:
In Defending Jefferson Davis, Arlene Barnum is a Class Act (4/30/17)

List of Offensive Monuments, Streets, Names in NOLA ...is Puzzling (4/23/17)
Confederate Monument Removal Scheduled for 1:00 a.m. Monday (4/22/17)
The Confederate Battle Flag Rises Again in South Carolina (2/6/17)
Can the Violence in NOLA be Alleviated with Equity Circles? (12/26/16)
Shreveport Work of Art Still Needs Funding for Restoration (10/22/16)
Can You Help Clio? Restoration Fundraiser is Now Underway (9/5/16)
Epperson Demands UDC Remove Confederate Monument Within the Year (7/6/16)
Epperson's Continued Attack on the Confederate Monument (6/22/16)
Report from the Caddo Commission Meeting in Which Ken Epperson Blasts "Jake-Leg Bloggers" (6/9/16)
Caddo Parish Confederate Monument Under Attack (5/19/16)
Joseph Welsh Texada's Life Mattered Too (1/31/16)
The Heartbreaking Removal of the New Orleans Confederate Monuments (1/17/16)