Protest New Orleans' Celebration of White Supremacy

"United States troops took over the state government and reinstated the usurpers but the national election November 1876 recognized white supremacy in the South and gave us our state."

These words are carved into the base of a monument celebrating white supremacy, near the heart of downtown New Orleans. The inscription is covered with a new plaque, but the monument remains.

As civil rights lawyer Mary Howell has noted, this is likely the only monument in the US that celebrates the killing of police officers. However, the New Orleans Police Department has never objected to this monument, perhaps because it celebrates the killing of Black police officers by white supremacists.

A local blog describes the history behind the monument. The full history is worth reading, but here are some highlights:

The “Battle” of Liberty Place was essentially a coup in which the White League of New Orleans deposed the state’s Republican governor by force...the White League in New Orleans organized an impromptu army on the morning of September 14, 1874 to seize the government of Louisiana itself. The battle was reminiscent of the Civil War, with units of the White League engaging a defensive, racially integrated State Militia and Metropolitan Police force. Hours into the fighting, the White League was able to flank their opponents and seize the Cabildo (still the seat of government at the time) and Arsenal. The Republican governor elect, William Pitt Kellogg, and General James Longstreet, commander of the militia and police force in the battle, took refuge in the federal customhouse, a building that the White League was rightfully wary of taking by force. Three days later, federal troops arrived in New Orleans and the White League capitulated. As with the Lost Cause movement’s later reinterpretation of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, the White League found a way to interpret their surrender to federal forces as a moral victory.

The monument was erected in 1891, at a time when the gains of reconstruction had been mostly crushed and white supremacists were in power and celebration. The plaque pictured above was added in 1934.

It was not until the 1970s that the city began a push to hide this ugly history, first with the addition of an explanatory plaque, and finally, via the city's first two Black mayors, attempts to take down the monument.

In 1981, Dutch Morial, the city’s first black mayor, ran into opposition in his attempt to have the monument taken down and instead had it surrounded by tall shrubs and the 1934 addition covered with a slab of granite. In 1989, street repairs and the construction of a shopping center forced the monument’s relocation to a storage facility, where many in city government hoped to keep it indefinitely. However, in 1991 a David Duke supporter grew impatient with the city’s lack of energy in seeing the monument reinstalled. Since federal funds had been used in the street improvements, the law stipulated that the historic monument be returned to a historically accurate location.

The 1991 struggle came at a time when New Orleans Mardi Gras was still officially segregated, before the city council voted to force all white Mardi Gras krewes to integrate. At least two krewes, Momus and Comus, chose to stop parading rather than integrate.

Today the monument stands at the corner of Iberville and Badine Street, just a block from Canal and North Peters. Although the words about white supremacy have been covered, the top of the statue still notes that it commemorates the names of members of the White League. The monument has frequently been the target of graffiti, most recently in 2012, when protestors against police violence spraypainted the names of Justin Sipp, Wendell Allen, and Trayvon Martin.

Mayor Landrieu recently said he "believes it is time to look at the symbols in this city to see if they still have relevance to our future." This Sunday, June 28, at 4:00pm, local activists have called for an action called white people against white supremacy (see link for location info).  As cities across the US are re-examining their confederate histories, perhaps this monument will finally come down once and for all.

Tulane University to Host Notorious White Supremacist on Campus

Tulane University is sponsoring an event featuring notorious racist David Horowitz this Wednesday. Horowitz is a nationally-known right wing extremist who denies that racism exists, calling institutional racism a "fantasy of the left." He has also said that the fact that Oprah Winfrey–whom he called "a fat black woman"–has made it to the top of society proves that racism is no longer a barrier to success for most Black Americans.

Horowitz sponsored a national ad campaign against reparations for slavery called, “Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is a Bad Idea—and Racist Too.” In the campaign, Horowitz said, “Reparations to African-Americans have already been paid” in the form of “trillions of dollars of welfare benefits and racial preferences” for Black people. In addition, Horowitz claims that African-Americans “owe a debt” to white people for "giving them freedom."

"If not for the sacrifices of white soldiers and a white American president," Horowitz has said, "blacks in America would still be slaves.”

Horowitz is the publisher of FrontpageMag, a right wing journal that frequently publishes white supremacists. For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, FrontpageMag published a piece called "Africa in our Midst: Lessons from Katrina," by Jared Taylor, a white supremacist who is close to Louisiana klansman David Duke and argues that blacks and Latinos are genetically inferior to whites. Following this line of attack, Horowitz himself complained that "in the national discussion of Katrina, Bush was accused of racism for failing to be on site immediately in New Orleans but actual racial crimes committed by blacks were rendered invisible." Horowitz has also published James Lublinskus, a former editor of the white nationalist movement's flagship publication, American Renaissance.

Horowitz is most famous for his self-declared war on Islam - the Southern Poverty Law Center lists him among the most prominent anti-Muslim racists in the US, and he is publisher of Jihad Watch, an online magazine dedicated to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric. He is known for statements such as “what has the Arab world contributed except terror?…The theocratic, repressive Arabic states do no significant science, no significant arts and culture.” He has also called Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin a "Muslim Brotherhood plant." Following this theme, the topic of his event this week is “From Boston to Jerusalem: How Islamic Jihadism Affects Us All.”

It is especially ironic that a local university would host Horowitz, as he has made a reputation for his work to stifle free expression on campuses. For example, in 2003, Horowitz started Students for Academic Freedom, which encouraged students to sneak into classes to take notes and report on "suspicious" professors as part of an attempt to launch campaigns to fire (or deny tenure to) professors who are insufficiently "pro-American."

Despite his history of attacks on African Americans, Muslims, and even academic freedom, Tulane Administration is helping to bring this hate speech to New Orleans. This is not the first time that Tulane has embraced Horowitz. In 2007, Tulane University hosted "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," part of a national anti-Muslim campaign launched by Horowitz. A primary sponsor of this event is a Tulane student group, Tulane Students United for Israel, as well as a UNO student group called Allies for Israel. In selecting Horowitz as a speaker, they appear to be making a statement that white supremacy and Israel advocacy go hand-in-hand.

Tulane students are asking allies to wear Black and meet at 6:15pm on Wednesday at Jones Hall on the Tulane campus. For more information, including contact info for student organizers, see this link, or you can directly contact Hillary Donnell at hdonnell@tulane.edu or Tulane Students for Justice in Palestine at tupalestine@gmail.com.

The September 1874 White League Coup D’état Against the Reconstruction Government

The Louisiana Museum of African American History Lecture Series Presents:

The September 1874 White League Coup D’état Against the Reconstruction Government

The story behind the White Supremacy Monument:
A Lecture by Malcolm Suber

In 1891 the white ruling class of New Orleans erected a monument on Canal Street to commemorate the September 14, 1874 military coup that temporarily overthrew the reconstruction government. The so-called “Battle of Liberty Place“ was carried out by the White League. The White League was the military arm of the Democratic Party whose sole purpose was to force Black reconstruction politicians and their white republican allies from office. The White League seized political power for three days until this coup was put down by the Federal troops. Come hear about the significance of this event and the lasting historic and contemporary meaning of the white supremacy monument which still stands at the foot of Iberville Street.

Saturday September 11, 2010 1:00pm - 3:00pm New Orleans Public Library Auditorium 219 Loyola Ave For further Info: 504-931-7614