Donor Pays to Remove Confederate Statues

An anonymous donor has agreed to pay for the removal of four Confederate statues in New Orleans, the city’s deputy mayor announced in a letter to the city council this week. The total cost for removing monuments to Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, Jefferson Davis, and a memorial to the Battle of Liberty Place is estimated to be $126,000. “These four statues stand in direct contradiction to the ideal of freedom enshrined in our Constitution and their presence in our city was meant to perpetuate a false history that literally puts the Confederacy on a pedestal,” the deputy mayor wrote.