[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 131 (Friday, July 24, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E677-E678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            REMOVAL OF CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS IN NEW ORLEANS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ANTHONY G. BROWN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 24, 2020

  Mr. BROWN of Maryland. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record the 
following speech, ``Truth: Remarks on the Removal of Confederate 
Monuments in New Orleans'' delivered by Mitch Landrieu at Gallier Hall 
in New Orleans, LA on May 19, 2017.

       Thank you for coming.
       The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history 
     that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse 
     people who have been here together every step of the way--for 
     both good and for ill.
       It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of 
     Native Americans--the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha.
       Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, 
     the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from 
     Senegambia, Free People of Color, the Haitians, the Germans, 
     both the empires of France and Spain. The Italians, the 
     Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the 
     Vietnamese and so many more.
       You see--New Orleans is truly a city of many nations/a 
     melting pot/a bubbling cauldron of many cultures.
       There is no other place quite like it in the world that so 
     eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e 
     pluribus unum--out of many we are one.
       But there are also other truths about our city that we must 
     confront.
       New Orleans was America's largest slave market: a port 
     where hundreds of thousands of souls were brought, sold and 
     shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor of 
     misery of rape, of torture.
       America was the place where nearly 4,000 of our fellow 
     citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the 
     courts enshrined `separate but equal'; where Freedom riders 
     coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp.
       So when people say to me that the monuments in question are 
     history, well what I just described is real history as well, 
     and it is the searing truth. And it immediately begs the 
     questions; why there are no slave ship monuments, no 
     prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or 
     the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of 
     our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame . . . all of it 
     happening on the soil of New Orleans.
       So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the 
     monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this 
     historical malfeasance, a lie by omission.
       There is a difference between remembrance of history and 
     reverence of it. For America and New Orleans, it has been a 
     long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great 
     triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth.
       As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony 
     for the National Museum of African American History & 
     Culture, ``A great nation does not hide its history. It faces 
     its flaws and corrects them.''
       So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these 
     four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also 
     how and why this process can move us towards healing and 
     understanding of each other.
       So, let's start with the facts.
       The historic record, is clear, the Robert E. Lee, Jefferson 
     Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to 
     honor these men, but as part of the movement which became 
     known as The Cult of the Lost Cause.
       This `cult' had one goal--through monuments and through 
     other means--to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is 
     that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity.
       First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city 
     and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments 
     that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our 
     city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy.
       It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the 
     United States of America, they fought against it. They may 
     have been warriors, but in this cause they were not patriots.
       These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not 
     just innocent remembrances of a benign history.
       These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, 
     sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the 
     enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for.
       After the Civil War, these statues were a part of that 
     terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone's lawn; they 
     were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who 
     walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this 
     city.
       Should you have further doubt about the true goals of the 
     Confederacy, in the very weeks before the war broke out, the 
     Vice President of the Confederacy/Alexander Stephens/made it 
     clear that the Confederate cause was about maintaining 
     slavery and white supremacy.
       He said in his now famous `corner-stone speech' that the 
     Confederacy's ``cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that 
     the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery--
     subordination to the superior race--is his natural and normal 
     condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the 
     history of the world, based upon this great physical, 
     philosophical, and moral truth.''
       Now, with these shocking words still ringing in your ears . 
     . .
       I want to try to gently peel from your hands the grip on a 
     false narrative of our history that I think weakens us. And 
     make straight a wrong turn we made many years ago--so we can 
     more closely connect with integrity to the founding 
     principles of our nation and forge a clearer and straighter 
     path toward a better city and a more perfect union.
       Last year, President Barack Obama echoed these sentiments 
     about the need to contextualize and remember all our history.
       He recalled a piece of stone, a slave auction block 
     engraved with a marker commemorating a single moment in 1830 
     when Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay stood and spoke from it.
       President Obama said, ``Consider what this artifact tells 
     us about history . . . on a stone where day after day for 
     years, men and women . . . bound and bought and sold and bid 
     like cattle on a stone worn down by the tragedy of over a 
     thousand bare feet. For a long time the only thing we 
     considered important, the singular thing we once chose to 
     commemorate as history with a plaque were the unmemorable 
     speeches of two powerful men.''
       A piece of stone--one stone.
       Both stories were history.
       One story told.
       One story forgotten or maybe even purposefully ignored.
       As clear as it is for me today . . . for a long time, even 
     though I grew up in one of New Orleans' most diverse 
     neighborhoods, even with my family's long proud history of 
     fighting for civil rights . . . I must have passed by those 
     monuments a million times without giving them a second 
     thought.
       So I am not judging anybody, I am not judging people. We 
     all take our own journey on race. I just hope people listen 
     like I did when my dear friend Wynton Marsalis helped me see 
     the truth.
       He asked me to think about all the people who have left New 
     Orleans because of our exclusionary attitudes.
       Another friend asked me to consider these four monuments 
     from the perspective of an African American mother or father 
     trying to explain to their fifth grade daughter who Robert E. 
     Lee is and why he stands atop of our beautiful city.
       Can you do it?
       Can you look into that young girl's eyes and convince her 
     that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think 
     she will feel inspired and hopeful by that story?
       Do these monuments help her see a future with limitless 
     potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is 
     limited, yours and mine are too?
       We all know the answer to these very simple questions.
       When you look into this child's eyes is the moment when the 
     searing truth comes into focus for us. This is the moment 
     when we know what is right and what we must do.
       We can't walk away from this truth.
       And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be 
     tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy 
     thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these 
     Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from 
     someone else. This is not about politics, this is not about 
     blame or retaliation.
       This is not a naive quest to solve all our problems at 
     once.
       This is however about showing the whole world that we as a 
     city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, 
     reconcile and most importantly, choose a better future for 
     ourselves making straight what has been crooked and making 
     right what was wrong.
       Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, 
     with division and yes with Violence.
       To literally put the Confederacy on a pedestal in our most 
     prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our 
     full past, it

[[Page E678]]

     is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription 
     for our future.
       History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a 
     statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the 
     Confederacy lost and we are better for it. Surely we are far 
     enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the 
     cause of the Confederacy was wrong.
       And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking 
     African Americans--or anyone else--to drive by property that 
     they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought 
     to destroy the country and deny that person's humanity seems 
     perverse and absurd.
       Centuries old wounds are still raw because they never 
     healed right in the first place.
       Here is the essential truth/we are better together than we 
     are apart.
       Indivisibility is our essence.
       Isn't this the gift that the people of New Orleans have 
     given to the world?
       We radiate beauty and grace in our food, in our music, in 
     our architecture, in our joy of life, in our celebration of 
     death; in everything that we do.
       We gave the world this funky thing called jazz/the most 
     uniquely American art form that is developed across the ages 
     from different cultures.
       Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think 
     about muffaletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, red beans 
     and rice.
       By God, just think.
       All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the 
     pot; creating, producing something better; everything a 
     product of our historic diversity.
       We are proof that out of many we are one--and better for 
     it! Out of many we are one--and we really do love it! And 
     yet, we still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the 
     right thing. Again, remember President Bush's words, ``A 
     great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws 
     and corrects them.''
       We forget, we deny how much we really depend on each other, 
     how much we need each other.
       We justify our silence and inaction by manufacturing noble 
     causes that marinate in historical denial.
       We still find a way to say `wait'/not so fast, but like Dr. 
     Martin Luther King Jr. said, ``wait has almost always meant 
     never.''
       We can't wait any longer. We need to change. And we need to 
     change now. No more waiting. This is not just about statues, 
     this is about our attitudes and behavior as well.
       If we take these statues down and don't change to become a 
     more open and inclusive society this would have all been in 
     vain.
       While some have driven by these monuments every day and 
     either revered their beauty or failed to see them at all, 
     many of our neighbors and fellow Americans see them very 
     clearly.
       Many are painfully aware of the long shadows their presence 
     casts; not only literally but figuratively.
       And they clearly receive the message that the Confederacy 
     and the cult of the lost cause intended to deliver.
       Earlier this week, as the cult of the lost cause statue of 
     P.G.T Beauregard came down, world renowned musician Terence 
     Blanchard stood watch, his wife Robin and their two beautiful 
     daughters at their side.
       Terence went to a high school on the edge of City Park 
     named after one of America's greatest heroes and patriots, 
     John F. Kennedy.
       But to get there he had to pass by this monument to a man 
     who fought to deny him his humanity.
       He said, ``I've never looked at them as a source of pride . 
     . . its always made me feel as if they were put there by 
     people who don't respect us.''
       ``This is something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. 
     It's a sign that the world is changing.''
       Yes Terence it is and it is long overdue.
       Now is the time to send a new message to the next 
     generation of New Orleanians who can follow in Terence and 
     Robin's remarkable footsteps.
       A message about the future, about the next 300 years and 
     beyond; let us not miss this opportunity New Orleans and let 
     us help the rest of the country do the same.
       Because now is the time for choosing.
       Now is the time to actually make this the City we always 
     should have been, had we gotten it right in the first place.
       We should stop for a moment and ask ourselves--at this 
     point in our history--after Katrina, after Rita, after Ike, 
     after Gustav, after the national recession, after the BP oil 
     catastrophe and after the tornado--if presented with the 
     opportunity to build monuments that told our story or to 
     curate these particular spaces . . . would these monuments be 
     what we want the world to see? Is this really our story?
       We have not erased history; we are becoming part of the 
     city's history by righting the wrong image these monuments 
     represent and crafting a better, more complete future for all 
     our children and for future generations.
       And unlike when these Confederate monuments were first 
     erected as symbols of white supremacy, we now have a chance 
     to create not only new symbols, but to do it together, as one 
     people.
       In our blessed land we all come to the table of democracy 
     as equals.
       We have to reaffirm our commitment to a future where each 
     citizen is guaranteed the uniquely American gifts of life, 
     liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
       That is what really makes America great and today it is 
     more important than ever to hold fast to these values and 
     together say a self-evident truth that out of many we are 
     one. That is why today we reclaim these spaces for the United 
     States of America.
       Because we are one nation, not two; indivisible with 
     liberty and justice for all . . . not some.
       We all are part of one nation, all pledging allegiance to 
     one flag, the flag of the United States of America.
       And New Orleanians are in . . . all of the way.
       It is in this union and in this truth that real patriotism 
     is rooted and flourishes.
       Instead of revering a 4-year brief historical aberration 
     that was called the Confederacy we can celebrate all 300 
     years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New 
     Orleans and set the tone for the next 300 years.
       After decades of public debate, of anger, of anxiety, of 
     anticipation, of humiliation and of frustration.
       After public hearings and approvals from three separate 
     community led commissions.
       After two robust public hearings and a 6-1 vote by the duly 
     elected New Orleans City Council.
       After review by 13 different federal and state judges.
       The full weight of the legislative, executive and judicial 
     branches of government has been brought to bear and the 
     monuments in accordance with the law have been removed.
       So now is the time to come together and heal and focus on 
     our larger task. Not only building new symbols, but making 
     this city a beautiful manifestation of what is possible and 
     what we as a people can become.
       Let us remember what the once exiled, imprisoned and now 
     universally loved Nelson Mandela and what he said after the 
     fall of apartheid.
       ``If the pain has often been unbearable and the revelations 
     shocking to all of us, it is because they indeed bring us the 
     beginnings of a common understanding of what happened and a 
     steady restoration of the nation's humanity.''
       So before we part let us again state the truth clearly.
       The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and 
     humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate 
     our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we 
     should never forget and one that we should never again put on 
     a pedestal to be revered.
       As a community, we must recognize the significance of 
     removing New Orleans' Confederate monuments.
       It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock 
     of, and then move past, a painful part of our history.
       Anything less would render generations of courageous 
     struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause.
       Anything less would fall short of the immortal words of our 
     greatest President Abraham Lincoln, who with an open heart 
     and clarity of purpose calls on us today to unite as one 
     people when he said:
       ``With malice toward none, with charity for all/with 
     firmness in the right/as God gives us to see the right/let us 
     strive on to finish the work we are in/to bind up the 
     nation's wounds . . ./to do all which may achieve and 
     cherish--a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with 
     all nations.''
       Thank you.

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