Charles Didier Dreux Monument, New Orleans

Charles Didier Dreux died on July 5, 1861, in Virginia at Young's Mill, the first Confederate officer to be killed in the Civil War. He was a prominent figure in New Orleans, having served in the state legislature and as a district attorney. Over thirty thousand people attended his funeral. The monument dedicated to him was unveiled on the 61st anniversary of his death in 1922. [1]The first archive photo is the statue of Dreux, a marble bust that reads “His last words were ‘boys steady.’ Nobler braver never lived.”  The bust portrays Dreux as a morally upright laudable individual representative of the innumerable other Confederates who would follow him in death during the Civil War. Such a representation supports the false narrative of the Lost Cause which ignores what these men were fighting for sustaining the institution of slavery and places them in a sacred space unable to be criticized or reconsidered.

The second photo was taken one of the many times that this statue was spray-painted, shown here with the nose chiseled off along with a red anarchist symbol. The monument was also vandalized with expletives in June of 2017 and January/May of 2018. Protestors have also placed a white cloth with red x’s over the eyes on the monument damaging its base during this time.[2] It was toppled at night by a small group of people likely associated with Black Lives Matter along with monuments to John Mcdonogh and Sophie B. Wright on July 8, 2020.[3] The anger relating to these monuments stems from their association with white supremacy which negatively affects the lives of African Americans on a daily basis.

The final photo in this archive was taken at a Black Lives Matter protest in New Orleans in 2020 honoring George Floyd, featuring the activist group Take ‘Em Down NOLA. This group (along with other New Orleans activists) have protested the Dreux monument many times and list it on their website along with other Confederate monuments as a symbol of white supremacy.[4] NOLA discusses in detail how the history of the slave trade and racism in New Orleans are connected to police brutality and the need for the Black Lives Matter movement. This march was of significant importance to rewriting history because the protesters viewed it as a demand for change and a lesson to the government for not taking action against obvious cases of racism in the country over the years. The symbolism of the protests coupled with the acts of vandalism are viewed as honorary actions in the process of changing the systems of oppression that led to the tragic losses of life at the hands of police officers.  For the people of New Orleans Dreux's life as a Confederate officer is reminiscent of the misconduct of many police officers and the continued existence of systemic oppression.

1. Ned Hemard, "Two Fallen Soldiers," New Orleans Nostalgia, New Orleans Bar Association, 2012. https://www.neworleansbar.org/uploads/files/TwoFallenSoldiers.6-6.pdf 

2. Marie Simoneaux, "Statue of Confederate Officer Charles Didier Dreux Vandalized in New Orleans," The Times-Picayune, last modified July 10, 2020. https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_74136d60-dcce-5a07-b0a1-dba1fd3dcf6c.html

3. "2 New Orleans Statues Toppled, 1 Vandalized With Red Paint," The Washington Post, July 10, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2-new-orleans-statues-toppled-1-vandalized-with-red-paint/2020/07/10/6b583964-c2db-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html

4. http://takeemdownnola.org/why-it-matters

5. https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/state-lwp%3A3503