[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.
____________________