NEW ORLEANS — Chanting ‘We can’t get no satisfaction ‘til we take down Andrew Jackson,’ the group Take ‘Em Down NOLA outlined a series of demands Thursday morning on the steps of New Orleans City Hall.
The group says that while cities around the country are beginning to take down statues of confederate and other white supremacists leaders, the city of New Orleans helped lead the effort three years ago with the removal of four such monuments.
the group has identified at least 13 additional monuments as well as street and school names that it wants to have changed.
“We have talked this thing to death already,” Malcolm Suber told the crowd, referring to the process of meetings that led up to the previous removal of the four monuments. “We don’t need to have any more discussion. It’s a conclusion that most people have already come to,” he said.
Suber also says that the group does not want the monuments that are removed to be replaced with planter boxes and flowers. Instead, he says they should be replaced with statues of black and brown leaders in the community.
Finally, the group wants the city to defund the New Orleans Police Department. It says that the money could be used to provide programs for people and eliminate the need for people to commit crimes.
