Confederate Monuments: Black Caucus Slams Louisiana House Bill

BATON ROUGE, LA – The Louisiana House of Representatives voted Monday in favor of a bill aimed at protecting Confederate monuments across the state. The Louisiana's Legislative Black Caucus said Tuesday the House's passage of a bill that would make it more difficult to remove Confederate monuments unmasked a "deep-rooted belief in white supremacy," a caucus spokesman said Tuesday in a news conference, proceedings of which were provided to Patch.

The legislation, sponsored by Shreveport Republican Rep. Thomas Carmody, bars local governments and municipalities from removing plaques and statues to military figures and events. The monuments could only be torn down following a vote by the public, according to CBS News. (To receive more New Orleans news and alerts, please subscribe here.)

The bill also includes remaining monuments in New Orleans, two of which where removed earlier this month, according to Patch. Both sides in the argument began to gather May 11 as police separated the two sides with fences as tensions rose, as the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was taken down.

New Orleans has been at the crux of the debate on whether to remove statues that honor Confederate history, which others see as monuments to white supremacy – and tensions have flared throughout the state. Carmody filed his bill as Shreveport debates the fate of a monument featuring a Confederate soldier and Confederate Gens. Henry Watkins Allen, P.G.T. Beauregard, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson at the Caddo Parish Courthouse.

All members of the Black caucus, left the chamber as the vote was taken. On Tuesday, the head of the caucus held a press conference, proceedings of which were given to Patch.

"What the passage of House Bill 71 really revealed was that there is still present in Louisiana a deep-rooted believe in white supremacy and a desire to revere those who fought against the United States of America in the American Civil War," said caucus Chairman Joseph Bouie, a New Orleans Democrat.

"The Legislative Black Caucus is offended and deeply wounded by the House's passage of this legislation," he said. "We were and are wounded because the bill attempts to rewrite history by honoring those who not only rebelled against the United States, but who fought to maintain man's greatest inhumanity to man; the system of slavery where our ancestors were considered property, less than human, women raped and abused, men slaughtered at will, and systems implemented to facilitate cultural suicide."

Photo by Gerald Herbert/Associated Press