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Take Down All Symbols to White Supremacy; Drop the Charges Against Wassell & Davis.

At a Take Back Pride demonstration on June 13, hundreds of protestors joined the worldwide movement to rid the earth of monuments to white supremacy. Carrying out the people’s mandate, they toppled a long despised statue of slaveholder and segregationist John McDonogh in Duncan Plaza. John McDonogh amassed a vast fortune off the backs of enslaved African people. Upon his death, some of this money went to the city to ensure a racially segregated school system. For their mere presence at the scene of this righteous demonstration of people power, Protestors Caleb Wassell and Michaela Davis were wrongfully singled out, arrested and face serious charges.

The City of New Orleans government should be arrested for continuing to allow the emulation of slaveholders to litter the city. It is long past time that all racist monuments to slavery be taken down. For years the City has ignored people’s demands to remove these statues. Just as all civil disobedience arose out of justice denied, people are rising up to push society forward. The national uprisings that were sparked by the public lynching of George Floyd are not over. Too many of our people are being repressed by police and jailed for exercising their right to rebel. We refuse to have our tax dollars used to imprison anyone standing up for freedom. We demand that all charges against Caleb and Michaela be dropped.

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Take ‘Em Down Takes the Streets

By Antranette Scott

On the 4th Thursday of every month Take Em Down Nola, takes to the street to continue the struggle to bring down ALL monuments and symbols of white supremacy from the landscape of New Orleans. In this current phase of the work, TEDN is focusing on 5 monuments in and around the French Quarter.

On August 23, the protest began with a rally at Lafayette Square where there are two especially egregious shrines to racism, Henry Clay and John McDonough. The community gathered and were educated by speeches from organizers. Lea Thompson from Mississippi Rising gave a passionate talk about the work that is happening in Ocean Springs, Mississippi against the racist flag of the state of Mississippi. Lea spoke on the commitment of the organizers, particularly the youth of the city to making sure the flag, embedded with the Confederate emblem, is not risen in public space.

The crowd then got into formation, and took to the streets. Chants of “White Supremacy Got To Go!” rang through the French Quarter. Protesters were joined by passersby, and raised fists of solidarity came from many hospitality workers in various shops and restaurants. The next stop was in front of the Louisiana Supreme Court building where stands a monument to E.D. White, known member of the white supremacist Crescent City White League and Supreme Court justice of the racist “Separate but Equal” Plessy v. Ferguson verdict that sanctioned segregation and ushered in Jim Crow area violence for decades to come. Spoken word artist, Chuck Perkins gave a moving piece following an informative speech. Next up was Jackson Square where those dedicated to the end of white supremacy gathered to listen to Sonny Patterson speak truth to power at sunset after an indigenous activist spoke on the multitude of atrocities that slave owner and architect of the Trail of Tears Andrew Jackson committed against the Indigenous Peoples of this land.

The final stop was on Decatur St where a statue glorifies colonization and mass death at the hands of Jean Baptists Le Moyne de Bienville. After a closing affirmation, protesters marched down Canal St loudly and proudly declaring that the fight against white supremacy is not over. The citizens of New Orleans will not be satisfied with a job partially done. Next month join Take Em Down NOLA in demanding that Mayor Cantrell FINISH THE JOB!!! REMOVE ALL MONUMENTS TO WHITE SUPREMACY FROM THE LANDSCAPE OF NEW ORLEANS!!!!

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The Next Five Targets for Take ‘Em Down NOLA

E.D. WHITE
As a Supreme Court Justice, White ruled with the majority in Plessy vs. Ferguson, legalizing the Jim Crow system. He was a member of the Crescent City White League, which murdered Black and white police officers in an attempted coup. He was a former Confederate soldier and segregationist.

ANDREW JACKSON
A genocidal, lying racist who owned 150 people as slaves, Andrew Jackson betrayed the enslaved people to whom he promised freedom after the Battle of New Orleans. He led military forces against the “Negro Fort” in Florida where 270 Black people were murdered in 1816. He authorized the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which caused the ethnic cleansing and forced migration of 60,000 Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and other indigenous nations.

MCDONOUGH
The famed plantation owner whose name is on many local schools, McDonough’s statue in Lafayette Square serves as a monument to a man who owned slaves, fought to protect slavery, and wrote that slavery was good for African people. The money he donated to public education created the first separate and unequal schools in New Orleans.

BIENVILLE
Credited with founding New Orleans, Bienville brought the first enslaved people to the city in 1708. He used enslaved and convict labor to build the settlement after it was established in 1718 and stole millions of acres of land from Choctaw, Chickasaw, Chitimatcha, Natchez and other indigenous nations for France. He expelled Jews from the colony and restricted the rights and freedom of African people in Louisiana through the Code Noir colonial laws.

HENRY CLAY
A statue of South Carolina slave-owner Henry Clay stands in Lafayette Square, honoring a man who was responsible for the Missouri Compromise that upheld slavery until the Civil War.

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Take Em Down Everywhere Conference Comes to New Orleans

By Toni Jones

On March 23 to 25 a historic strategic organizing conferenc hosted y Take Em Down NOLA convened to build up support and create bonds of unity between groups organizing in many states to rid public spaces of symbols to white supremacy.

The weekend included strategy sessions, videos, a public rally of hundreds and a Sunday march. At the march, Shabaka from Trinidad and Tobago, (fighting statues of Rhodes and Columbus), spoke in front of the Bienville statue. Bienville was a brutal slaveholder, and oppressor of Native Americans, stealing their land for his plantation. Shabaka said “You are an inspiration to people all around the world. Everytime you take down one of these genocidal monsters, we in the Caribbean, Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica, and Haiti, we see it and we are inspired. we are strengthened, and we know that what we are doing is right. and it gives us fuel to keep our work going.”

Conference participants and New Orleanians took to the streets to make their demand: “Take ‘Em Down Everywhere!” in the heart of the tourism capital of the south. Large metal fences had been erected, barricading the State Supreme Court, and the iron gates of Jackson Square had been locked shut in a cowardly attempt from the rich to save dead men’s monuments from retribution for their racist crimes and genocidal hatred.

TAKE EM DOWN NOLA TAKING IT TO THE NEXT STEPS
As Angela Kinlaw said at the rally about the four white supremacy monuments removed due to Take Em Down NOLA organizing, despite threats from fascists and police, “people said we’d never see this in our lifetime….But when you have an uprising, a collective mass movement that demands forward change, that change will come.”

Mayor Landrieu, New Orleans outgoing white mayor, seeking national office, is trying to claim credit for his “bravery”, all the while he has presided over increasing institutional racism in housing, wages, schools and mass incarceration. It was non-stop organizing in the streets, community, schools and workplaces that forced the first four down.

Participants decided to carry the work forward together by forming a national network called Take Em Down Everywhere.

As Rev. Marie Galatis, a veteran leader of the civil rights struggle and struggle to get rid of white supremacy monuments said, no one will stop us, we will keep marching, keep protesting until they’re all down.

NEXT STEP – NEW ORDINANCE
A new ordinance has been drafted that calls for all monuments to white supremacy come down as they represent past and present racism. The former council resolution merely named four monuments to come down because they are a “nuisance”. While that was a victory it still took over a year of protests to get Lee, Davis, Beauregard and one more off our streets.

But there are many more. The most well known is that of Andrew Jackson a symbol of the city in tourist ads. Jackson was a brutal slave holder who committed murderous attacks on “free” people of color and carried out genocide against Native Americans, as the architect of the Trail of Tears.

So even though Robert E. Lee came down (a joyous day) there is still Robert E. Lee Boulevard and Jefferson Davis Parkway, the main criminals of the confederacy who enslaved Africans and fought to continue slavery for the rich plantation owners and northern bankers.

At the same time, education and activism will continue focusing on the next five which are listed here with explanations of who these racist, rich monsters were.

The New Orleans Workers Group has been and will continue to be involved all the way and we urge you to roll up your sleeves and get with Take Em Down NOLA

Contact us at: Facebook. com/TakeEmDownNOLA/