When New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu succeeded in removing three
Confederate monuments, he said those three statues to Lee, Beauregard
and Davis represented “terrorism.” “. . . [T]hey were erected
purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows
about who was still in charge in this city,” he added.
[1]
Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio made similar comments when the San
Antonio Confederate monument was removed. On Aug. 31, 2017, he said the
Confederate statue represented the darkest chapter in San Antonio
history.
[2] Both mayors described their respective Confederate monuments as extensions of the Confederate States of America.
As a lawyer who has practiced employment law for some 25 years (with a
couple of interruptions for military service), I cringe. Two elected
leaders, both very bright and hard working, are conflating two different
events, the Civil War and the monuments memorializing Confederate dead.
Worse, they confuse motives for the war with motives for the monuments.
Mayor Landrieu may have greater latitude, because at least, the New
Orleans monuments commemorated actual CSA leaders. But, the state in San
Antonio represented no leader. It represented the common Confederate
soldier