Building New Monuments of Truth in New Orleans

For well over a century the Gen. Robert E. Lee monument that stood 90-feet tall over what was once called Lee Circle in New Orleans was subject to a variety of interpretations, many of them favorable to the Confederate military leader of the Lost Cause. People projected their own thoughts and beliefs onto the monument: to some it was a consolation prize for the losers of the Civil War, or a symbol of Lee’s supposed kindliness and military brilliance, or an avatar for free speech, or states’ rights, a historical artifact, or a matter of “Southern heritage.” To many Italian-Americans, it is the site where 11 Italian immigrants were unjustly lynched under a wave of nativist extremism not unlike what’s seen today. For many African Americans, it was merely a symbol of white supremacy and oppression.

But that was all before the statue of Lee was yanked down from its pedestal in May, the result of decades of grassroots pressure on the city. All that remains standing in what’s now informally called “Free Circle,” or by its original name, “Tivoli Circle,” is the column and marble base the Lee statue was perched on. The space is now completely subject to reinterpretation. Another Lee has taken over the circle—the New Orleans-based architect Bryan Lee, founder of the design-justice nonprofit Colloqate Design—along with a gang of artists, activists, and historians determined to rinse the city of all white supremacist symbols.