Landrieu tells ABC News that early in his decision-making process he reached out to his father, Moon Landrieu, a former New Orleans mayor and a leading civil rights pioneer. Who is he? What does he represent? And in that most prominent space in the city of New Orleans, does that space reflect who were, who we want to be or who we are?'” Landrieu continued, “Suddenly, I was listening.”Īfter that conversation in 2014, Landrieu said he knew that it would be a “big political fight” to change the city landscape. Landrieu writes that Marsalis asked him to “'Let me help you see it through my eyes. The second-term mayor is promoting his new book, “In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History” which chronicles his decision to remove the monuments and the controversy that followed. My friend Wynton Marsalis was the one who slapped me in the head and said: 'You have to think about that.'" "It came into really clear focus as we were completely rebuilding the city.
On ABC's "Powerhouse Politics" podcast, Landrieu tells ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein that after Hurricane Katrina devastated that city, “We did a lot of soul-searching in this city about what history we wanted to remember, what history we wanted to just identify as not being really part of who we were.”ĭuring the interview, Landrieu says it was his friend – New Orleans native and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis – who first suggested to him that a way for the city to move forward was to remove a statue of Robert E.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is speaking out about his controversial decision to remove four Confederate monuments from his southern city, which sparked a debate about race and history in the United States.
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