Battle of Liberty Place Monument, New Orleans

Battle of Liberty Place Monument
"One side of the monument erected to race prejudice. New Orleans, Louisiana"

Dublin Core

Title

Battle of Liberty Place Monument, New Orleans

Description

In mid-September of 1874, tensions boiled over in the city of New Orleans and gunshots rang out as the city, divided by the legacy of the Civil War and weary of the “carpet-baggers” and Reconstruction policies, erupted into violence.[1]The Crescent City Democratic Club, which changed its name to the Crescent City White League shortly before these events, was led by former Confederate general Frederick Ogden in their attempted coup against Governor William Kellogg, seeking to replace this Republican with the more favored loser of the election of 1872, the pro-segregation Democrat John McEnry.[2] Notably, the police force was an integrated force with white and black officers and the state militia made of up black regiments after being surrounded at the statehouse was disarmed and disbanded.[3] The coup ultimately failed with the arrival of federal troops, but the event effectively ended the strong reconstruction policy in New Orleans.[4] In 1891, local groups including the Fourteenth of September Monument Committee (a group created specifically for this purpose) and a Women's Auxiliary Committee built the Battle of Liberty Place monument on Canal Street, commemorating this event.[5] The monument has been removed and returned to great controversy several times, with the most recent removal in 2017 following the Charleston church shooting in 2015.[6]

 

What makes this monument stand out is its commemoration of an act of rebellion against the United States government outside of the Civil War and the frankness of the language on the monument itself. Most monuments in this archive were raised to figures associated with the Civil War rather than a post-war event. While its form is similar to many others, more than many other monuments it represents the direct repudiation of the Reconstruction by white Southerners. The directness of which it was used to support white supremacy can be seen in the inscription shown in the second image added in 1932 which directly celebrates the end of Reconstruction and the continuity of white supremacy.[6] This monument serves to exemplify why this archive is necessary and useful.

 

This monument serves to illustrate a valuable point regarding all the monuments documented in this archive. As can be seen from the inscription added in 1932 these monuments are not static, but rather evolving areas where memory and history meet. What a monument means is dependent on the process of its creation and the historical context in which it is being viewed. As monuments  physically chang so too do they ideologically change whether they have additions or elements removed. A monument's are not sacred or immutable and are dependent upon the will of the public to exist. The removal of this monument reveals how the narratives that these monuments support are themselves not invulnerable and can be dismantled.

Creator

Charles A. Orleans (Sculptor); The Fourteenth of September Memorial Association (Sponsor); Women's Auxiliary Committee of New Orleans (Sponsor)

Source


  1. Kendall, John. History of New Orleans, Chapter 23. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company. 1922. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Louisiana/New_Orleans/_Texts/KENHNO/23*.html

  2. Nystrom A, Justin. “Battle of Liberty Place”. 64 Parishes. Accessed November 14, 2023. https://64parishes.org/entry/battle-of-liberty-place.

  3. “General (Frederick) Ogden Drive”. New Orleans City Council Street Renaming Commission. Accessed 27 November, 2020. https://nolaccsrc.org/ogden/

  4. Young, Patrick. “The White League Monument at Liberty Place in New Orleans”. Blog. September 10, 2020. https://thereconstructionera.com/the-white-league-monument-at-liberty-place-in-new-orleans/

  5. Chadwick, Gordon. “The Creation of the Battle of Liberty Place Monument,” New Orleans Historical. Accessed December 6, 2020. https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/150.

  6. Litten, Kevin. “Efforts to remove Confederate monuments in New Orleans go back decades”. The Times-Picayune. Accessed December 1, 2020. https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_752f52c2-54b1-5541-ab1d-deef8f98c95d.html

  7. Blakemore, Erin. “New Orleans Tears Down Controversial Confederate Monuments” Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-orleans-tears-down-controversial-confederate-monuments-180963023/

.

Date

1891

Contributor

Luca Azuma (2020), Angela Minning (2021), Samuel McMillan (2023)

Type

Granite Sculpture

Identifier

HIST 402A Fall 2020

Coverage

New Orleans, LA

Geolocation