Their View: Will The Rest Of The South Follow New Orleans Lead?

In the space of just a few weeks, New Orleans has taken a major step toward de-glorifying a past that deserves very little glory. Acting on the vote of its city council, and with cover from state and federal courts that rebuffed specious challenges, the city took down monuments erected with the explicit goal of lionizing the Confederacy and a past in which slavery was a central and defining feature. Despite huffing and puffing by relatively small bands of whites — some armed, some unrepentantly racist — claiming their “heritage” was being dishonored, Mayor Mitch Landrieu acted decisively.