SCLC wants Confederates gone and Alexander returned

13th July 2015   ·   0 Comments

Members of the civil rights community joined the payday loans zachary la Greater New Orleans Southern Christian Leadership Conference affiliate and SCLC president and CEO Dr. Charles Steele Wednesday afternoon at Evening Star Baptist Church in uptown New Orleans to call for the removal of racist symbols and monuments like the Robert E. Lee statue in the Central Business District and the return of a statue that honors SCLC board member, state legislator and local civil rights hero the Rev. Avery C. Alexander.

The SCLC, which was founded in New Orleans by a coalition of U.S. activist ministers that included the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy and the Rev. A.L. Davis, also announced that its national convention will be held in Baton Rouge, La. later this month.

The SCLC’s call for the removal of racist symbols and monuments in New Orleans comes — less than a week after the African Methodist Episcopal bishops gathered in New Or­leans where they challenged America to take a stand against racism in the wake of the mass killing of nine Blacks attending Em­an­­uel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17.

The Rev. Norwood Thompson, president of the Greater New Orleans SCLC affiliate, said that in addition to removing the statues of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, P.G.T. Beau­re­gard and the Liberty Monument near the foot of Canal Street, he thinks the city should take down the monument to John McDonogh, the former slaveowner who donated large sums of money to support public education in New Orleans and Baltimore, Maryland.

Although he remembers visiting the statue on John McDonogh Day as a child and Black children laying flowers at the foot of the statue after the white children had done so, Thompson says it’s time for the McDonogh statue to come payday loan weatherford tx down. “I didn’t know any better as a child — we were just glad to be out of school on a field trip,” he recalled. “But because of what its represents, it’s time for the statue to be removed along with all the other racist symbols.

“These racist symbols need to come down because this was dedicated to the Confederacy, and the Confederacy lost the Civil War. We are the United States of America now. A lot of our children and people of color just don’t know their history, especially the fact that this city was one of the largest slave traders in the country. Once we get our children to recognize and go back to their history, they’ll see why these monuments need to be taken down.”

The SCLC renewed its call last week for the return of the statue of the Rev. Avery C. Alexander to its place of honor outside the State Building in Duncan Plaza. The statue was removed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina so that it would not be damaged by the demolition of the State Building several years ago.

“If it wasn’t for the SCLC and Black leaders in the city, that statue would probably remain in mothballs,” Thompson added. “It should have been out. That’s a dishonor.

“It looks like we’re reverting back to the past.”

Thompson said he, the Rev. Marie Galatas and others will work with Rev. Alexander’s family to make sure that the statue is returned to it place of honor near Duncan Plaza.

“Rev. Alexander told me once, ‘Rev. Thompson, when you’re dead people forget about you,” Thompson told The Louisiana Weekly. “I said, ‘Not you, Rev. Alexander. You were one of our stalwart civil rights workers russells cash loans in this city. You led the civil rights demonstrations, got put in a police noose for taking down that white monument and dragged up the steps of City Hall. How would they forget you?’

“He was almost right — they got that statue locked away and hidden from public view.”

Rev. Thompson also took issue with those who refused to call Charity Hospital by its proper name, The Rev. Avery C. Alexander Hospital. He said that efforts to renovate the historic hospital should include Alexander’s name regardless of the way the building is used by its future inhabitants.

A coalition of grassroots organizations and community activists held a rally at Lee Circle on June 26 demanding the removal of racist monuments throughout the Crescent City.

The rally took place just three days after New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the city’s first white mayor in more than three decades, apologized for slavery and visited the idea of removing the Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beau­regard and Jefferson Davis statues before the city’s 300th anniversary in 2018.

“I began to envision myself as an African-American man driving down the street with my little girl behind me, approaching Lee Circle,” Landrieu told those gathered at the June 24 Welcome Table event. “And her saying, ‘Hey Daddy, that’s a really nice statue, what is that? It’s so pretty.’ I say, ‘Well, honey, that’s General Lee.’

“And she says, ‘Well, who was General Lee?’” the mayor continued. “‘[H]e was a great general. He fought in great wars for great things.’ ‘[W]hat kind of great wars for great things?’ ‘[T]he one we know him for is the Civil War.’… ‘Wow. He fought for me?’ ‘No, no, no baby, I’m sorry. I wasn’t clear with you. He didn’t fight for you. He was for the other side.’ ‘Oh, well why is that there? Is there another circle in the city, that’s for me?’

“And you see, right now I can’t answer that question, as a dad.”

After pausing for a moment, the mayor said: “So, here’s what I think. I think today’s the day we start having the discussion about what we’re going to put there to celebrate our 300th anniversary.”

Landrieu’s father, former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu, is credited with removing the Confederate battle flag from City Council Chambers in 1969.

Rev. Thompson, who joined community activists like Carl Gal­mon, the Rev. Raymond Brown and others in a campaign to remove the names of slaveowners from New Orleans Public Schools in the 1990s, said he also supports the renaming of streets like Robert E. Lee Blvd. and Jefferson Davis Parkway.

“If we want to remove the statues, we should also want to remove the street names,” Thompson told The Louisiana Weekly. “That just makes sense.

Thompson said efforts are under way to change the name of a street in St. Bernard Parish to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. “They are so close,” he said. “Most of the people are in favor of it except five white families that live on that street and the Catholic Church doesn’t want it changed. …It looks like it might happen.”

The 57th Annual SCLC National Conference will be held in Baton Rouge, La. July 23-26 and is expected to be attended by thousands of activist ministers and civil rights veterans from around the country.

This article originally published in the July 13, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.