Week of May 22 - May 28, 2017 Providing ‘News that matters’ for years VVOOLL. XCI NO. 36 Since 1925 9w1 ww.louisianaweekly.com 50 cents CCOMMENCEMENT SSEASON City meets deadline for removing four Confederate-era monuments Battle over statues waged with fists, insults, legislation, petition and paint Just hours after a heated argument led to a violent attack on someone calling for the removal of the city’s Confederate-era monu - ments, the City of New Orleans took down the third of four monuments the City Council voted in Dec. 2015 to remove from public spaces. The P.G.T. Beauregard Equestrian Statue, which honors the former Confederate General and St. Bernard Parish native, was taken down in a process that began Tuesday night and ended before dawn on Wednesday morning, May 17. All that remains at the site is the pedestal base upon which the monument sat, which the Landrieu adminis - tration said would be moved at a later date. The Battle of Liberty Place monument was taken down overnight on April 24, followed by the May 8 overnight removal of the Jefferson ‘Choose freedom over fear,’ singer, songwriter and actress Davis monument in Mid-City. Janelle Monae told Dillard University’s Class of 2017 on The Beauregard monument was the first of Saturday, May 13. Monae, who was this year’s commencement the monuments to be taken down in prime- speaker, received an honorary degree from DU, along with Hyatt time without an air of secrecy, but the con - Regency New Orleans general manager Michael O. Smith; nurse tractors who took down the monument still and entrepreneur Dorothy Perrault; and, posthumously, civil wore masks to conceal their identities as rights lawyer Lolis Edward Elie. Also receiving special they had in the two earlier projects. recognition were Valedictorians Aaliyah Cummings and Oluseun Initially, the Landrieu administration had Joaquim each of whom earned a 4.0 grade point average. ‘I said it wanted to have completed the project of celebrate you.’ Monae went on to tell the graduates, who removing the four monuments by May 19. numbered 166. ‘When I look out, all I can see is a direct reflection It met that deadline by starting the process of the vision your founders and our ancestors worked so hard for. (Photos courtesy of Dillard University) of taking down the Robert E. Lee monument Their future looked just like you.’ last Thursday and working to get it done before the close of business Friday, May 19, which happens to be the birthday of Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. “Today we take another step in defining our City not by our past but by our bright future,” Months after meeting with HBCU presidents, Continued on Pg. 2 Trump still giving mixed messages on Black Colleges By Jane Kennedy that the president signed in February to move a meeting that was widely panned as little more Family still Contributing Writer the White House Initiative on Historically than a photo op. That same month, Education Black Colleges and Universities from the Secretary Betsey DeVos was heavily criticized (TriceEdneyWire.com) — Repeatedly dur - Education Department to the White House, for a statement in which she praised HBCUs as seeking ing his first 100 days, President Donald J. which some believed was an indication that “real pioneers when it comes to school choice”. Trump signaled to the leaders and supporters HBCUs would indeed continue to be a priori - HBCUs were actually birthed from legalized answers two of historically Black colleges and universities ty under the new administration that had been racial segregation when African Americans had (HBCUs) that the federal support on which expressed by the President. no choice but to attend Black schools. It was, in HBCUs depend would remain a priority But, doubts surfaced just weeks later after part, the aftermath of that statement that caused years later under his administration. dozens of HBCU presidents and leaders met Continued on Pg. 3 The family of a 16-year-old girl whose One sign of hope was an executive order with the President in the Oval Office Feb. 27 for remains were found on the interstate in eastern New Orleans two years ago is still looking for answers about her death and hoping that those responsible for her death are brought to justice. In a recent interview, Kenisha Martin told FOX 8 News that she lost her only daughter, Report: La. abortion restrictions not based on scientific facts 16-year-old Kayland Ward, on June 4, 2015. By Sharon Armstrong ing national research and policy Louisiana, a reproductive justice supported abortion restrictions, “Yeah, her birthday was April 4 and she was Contributing Writer organization that concentrates on advocacy group, also launched a according to the study. Additional killed on June 4, exactly two months after her sexual and reproductive health. state-focused Lies into Law edu - partners include the Texas 16th birthday,” Martin told FOX 8 News. It could be said that separating Authored by Guttmacher Institute cation campaign that addresses Freedom Network Education Police found Kaylan’s body on the I-10 fact from fiction seems to have experts Rachel Benson Gold and abortion restrictions that the Fund and the Trust Women overpass near Bullard Avenue in New Orleans become America’s national pastime Elizabeth Nash, the report concerns group says are based on unsound Foundation, a Kansas- and since President Donald Trump took a new study, titled “Flouting the science and or even outright lies. Oklahoma-based organization. office in January 2017, but when it Facts: State Abortion Restrictions Lift also partnered with the In the first three months of 2017, Continued on Pg. 3 comes to reproductive rights, sepa - Flying In The Face of Science,” on National Partnership for Women according to the Guttmacher report, rating facts from “alt-facts” has state-level anti-abortion laws that & Families to launch the Lies into legislators introduced 1,503 provi - never been more important, accord - are not based on sound science, Law effort in Texas, Kansas and sions related to reproductive health. ing to a report released on May 9 with a focus on Louisiana data. Oklahoma, states which have the by the Guttmacher Institute, a lead - As a response to that data, Lift highest number of non-science Continued on Pg. 15 THE LOUISIANA WEEKLY - Page 2 YOUR MULTICULTURAL MEDIUM May 22 - May 28, 2017 Monument contentions in Black and white By Christopher Tidmore nature of either, or any facial dis - the St. Charles Ave. Streetcar line. Street Car, was from St. Bernard Contributing Writer guise of any kind or description, The native son designed one of the Parish, Dawlin, attempted to run out calculated to conceal or hide the city’s most stunning buildings, the the carpetbagger Republicans after Irony abounded when mounted identity of the person or to prevent Egyptian-revival U.S. Custom the war and fought for integration in police officers cordoned off the his being readily recognized.” House on Canal St. And he saved New Orleans schools. Before you equestrian statue of P.G.T. The real irony is that as a gifted the U.S. Mint on Esplanade Ave. by desecrate, educate.” Beauregard from those protesting engineer, P.G.T. Beauregard proba - replacing the innards with specially Mouledoux referenced its removal from the entrance of bly would have achieved the constructed steel girders, and Beauregard’s work in the so- City Park on evening of May 16. removal of his statue in far less time rebuilding the rooms around them. called Unification Movement call - Of course, maintaining men on than the seven-plus hour struggle Put another way, Louis Armstrong’s ing for civil rights for new enfran - horseback to cover the unseating of that occupied the Mayor and work - first coronet now sits in a room built chised slaves as a means of ending a bronze horse and his rider proved ers into the pre-dawn hours of last by P.G.T. Beauregard. Reconstruction occupation of not nearly as ironic as the fact that Wednesday morning. Monument supporter Pierre Union troops. In 1873, he said, “I most of the workers laboring to do If the Civil War had never hap - Mouledoux argued that the am persuaded that the natural rela - so until 3 a.m. wore face masks. pened, New Orleans would Beauregard bronze deserved a tion between the white and col - Columnist James Gill quoted a remember Pierre Gustav Toutant- better fate than removal from his ored people is that of friendship. I City ordinance older than the 106- Beauregard as one of its greatest pedestal over the waters of am persuaded that their interests year-old statue mandating that the architects, builders, and inven - Bayou St. John to a city scrap - are identical; that their destinies in concealing of one’s face is allow - tors. He opened the Mississippi yard in Desire. this state, where the two races are New Orleans police separate two men after the two tussled at the Gen. able only at festivals such as River to increased commerce by “It is a sad night in New Orleans. equally divided, are linked togeth - P.G.T. Beauregard monument in City Park in New Orleans, La. Tuesday, Halloween and Mardi Gras. As conceiving the “self-acting bar The mayor in his effort to leave any er; and that there is no prosperity May 16, 2017. Workers in New Orleans took down a Confederate mon - the law reads, “No person shall excavator” so ships could cross form of legacy before his term for Louisiana which must not be ument to Gen. P.G.T.