This Confederate monument survived controversy, but not the hurricane
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, October 31, 2024


This Confederate monument survived controversy, but not the hurricane
Hurricane Laura damaged the South’s Defenders Memorial Monument, a Confederate monument in the Calcasieu Parish that sits on the Calcasieu Courthouse lawn in Lake Charles, La., on Aug. 27, 2020. Hurricane Laura damaged the statue, which has toppled in other storms but always been restored. Critics hope this time will be different. William Widmer/The New York Times.

by Lucy Tompkins



NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- As protests against police violence and white supremacy swept away dozens of long-standing memorials to the Confederacy this summer, a 105-year-old monument on the courthouse lawn in Lake Charles, Louisiana, remained standing.

Until Hurricane Laura tore the statue atop it down.

“It is a blessing, a small blessing, in a very devastating situation,” said Davante Lewis, who grew up in Lake Charles and supported the monument’s removal.

The debate over what to do about the South’s Defenders Memorial Monument, which depicted a Confederate soldier on a marble pedestal, had been the “hottest thing in the city” in recent months, Lewis said Thursday, until residents turned their attention to preparing for one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the region.

The monument was the object of anger and protests after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by the police in Minneapolis. The political decision over its fate largely broke down along racial lines, although Lake Charles’ mayor, Nic Hunter, a Republican who is white, had expressed support for removing it.

But two weeks ago, the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, an elected body that acts like a county board of commissioners and has jurisdiction over the courthouse property, voted 10-5 at a special meeting to keep it.

The jury members received 945 written responses from the public in support of the monument, according to The Lafayette Daily Advertiser, and 67 that wanted it gone.

“I view it as military, and it’s just the way I was brought up, to show respect to any statues or monuments,” said Ashton Richard, a police jury member who is white and voted to keep the memorial.

After the vote, protesters said the fight was not over; they started an economic boycott of any business or church affiliated with the jury members who had voted in the monument’s favor.

“If the city would have done what many of us asked it to do, that statue could be in a museum, it could be well kept together and not be damaged,” Lewis said. “But unfortunately, they took other opportunities to keep it in the bright light of day, and Mother Nature had another plan.”




Hurricane Laura’s powerful winds — tied for the strongest ever to strike Louisiana — appeared to have ripped the bronze statue of the soldier from its pedestal and left it lying next to the base of the monument on Thursday morning among a pile of broken tree limbs.

Officials said they did not know what will happen to it now.

“Today is about making sure everyone is safe and secure,” said Mike Smith, a police jury member who voted for removal.

Smith is one of four Black men, along with Lewis’ father, Eddie Lewis Jr., on the 15-member police jury. It represents all of Calcasieu Parish, whose residents are 68% white and 24% Black. But Lake Charles’ population is about 50% African American.

The vote on whether to remove the statue split mostly along racial lines, with just one white member voting to remove it.

“You have older white men making these decisions,” said Cary Chavis, a Black man and former teacher who helped lead the protests. “When we go in front of the police jury and say, ‘We want this done,’ they don’t have to do this because they don’t look like us.”

The statue has come down several times before — including in a 1918 storm, just three years after it was erected — but has always been restored. In 1995 it was blown off and repaired, despite protests from some local residents, including a district judge, who turned their backs as the soldier was returned to the pedestal.

Chavis said he hoped that would not be the case this time around.

“That’s what I’m hoping for — that as we put Lake Charles back together,” he said, “we put it back together not with images of systemic racism or white supremacy on public grounds.”


© 2020 The New York Times Company










Today's News

August 28, 2020

New York's Museum of Modern Art re-opens with few visitors

UNESCO in massive fundraising drive for blast-hit Beirut

Natural History Museum union files complaint over coronavirus app

No laughing matter as Dutch masterwork stolen for third time

This Confederate monument survived controversy, but not the hurricane

Auschwitz museum calls TikTok Holocaust videos 'hurtful'

New Director sees Berlin's Jewish Museum as a place for debate

House of Electronic Arts Basel opens an international group show

Christie's to offer The Collection of A. Jerrold Perenchio

Phillips to offer 24 lots of unique Polaroids by photographer Steven Klein

Pandemic shatters 'flourishing' Paris tourism

Basquiat with provenance leads LAMA's new hybrid-format auction

Jill Freedman's striking Civil Rights photographs at Bonhams New York

École nationale supérieure d'arts de Paris-Cergy exhibits Yto Barrada's 'Holes in the Moon'

Letter left in drawer reveals Japanese cabinet was Queen Mary's charity donation

Art Deco exhibition opens at Hazelhurst Arts Centre

Housatonic Museum of Art awarded Inspire! grant from The Institute of Museum Studies for collections care

Kunsthalle Bremen exhibits ten young and promising positions in contemporary art

USF Contemporary Art Museum opens 'The Neighbors: Slide Shows for America'

Baltimore Museum of Art announces plans to reopen in September 2020

A bright light from a Dark Knight as Heritage Auctions hosts the hero initiative's "Batman 100 Project"

Thomire French Empire candelabras could bring $80,000 at Heritage Auctions

Fabric of success: how 'lotus silk' is weaving its way into Vietnam

Egyptian cinema hit hard by pandemic

ART HAS NO BOUNDARIES: TOP 10 MASTERPIECES RULING OVER 2020

Graphic Designers and Animation Experts Flock to iGaming Industry




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful