The White League Monument at Liberty Place in New Orleans

On September 15, the Picayune devoted its front page to the corner stone-laying ceremony. The article on the “celebration” repeatedly refer to the White militiamen as “martyrs” to the cause of deposing Blacks from participation in government. The ceremony itself involved leading men of the city, a sizable “women’s auxiliary”, the surviving members of the White League, and the State of Louisiana’s own militia. A sketch of the proposed monument filled the center of the front page.

Here is the headline describing the armed insurrectionists as “Martyrs.”

A note on the two clergymen that the headline notes offered prayers at the dedication of the monument. Vicar General Bogaets represented the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans and Rev. Benjamin Palmer was the former head of the Presbyterian churches in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Palmer had attracted national renown in 1860 when in response to the question of what task God had entrusted to Southerners he had answered  I answer, that it “is to conserve and to perpetuate the institution of domestic slavery as now existing.” The presence of these two eminent churchmen indicated the broad acceptance of the monument as representing all elements of the white community, French and English, Protestant and Catholic.

The articles that fill the front page are long and I won’t reproduce all of them here. You can get the sense of the breathless hagiographic writing from the opening two paragraphs.

The keynote was delivered by former Confederate Major Benjamin Franklin Jonas, a man who had represented Louisiana in the Senate after the White League and the Democratic Party “Redeemed” the state.

I will offer substantial excerpts from B.F. Jonas’s speech because it helps explain what white New Orleanians thought they were memorializing with the new shaft. Jonas was one of the most prominent men of his day and he likely spoke for many Confederate veterans and White Leaguers. As with many Confederate monument dedications, Jonas marked the occasion as a holy one.

Memorializing the dead of September 14, 1874 is described as a “holy duty.” Of course, the monument does not memorialize all of the dead, only the White Leaguers and their supporters. We find this elision in Confederate monumentation as well. While the ubiquitous Confederate soldier statues are said to be politically neutral memorials to the local dead of the Civil War, they never include mention of United States Colored Troops or White Loyalists from the area who served in the Union Army. Note also that the speech does not only remember the dead, but it valorizes the “cause of their people” for which they gave their lives. It is also shocking to see the ceremony described as a “patriotic occasion” since it commemorates a violent uprising against the state and federal governments.

Jonas explained to the large assemblage at the ceremony, that the uprising had been organized to “rid themselves” of negro rule.”

In discussing the outrages supposedly committed by the Republicans, Jonas highlights the blocking of arms shipments to the White League militias. Since the White League intended to use the guns to violently overthrow the state government, the shock Jonas expresses that the police might confiscate the weapons seems disingenuous.

The inscription on the monument was blunt, and at least partially accurate in its celebration of the reestablishment of White Supremacy. You can see the inscription clearly in this 1936 photo by the great Dorothea Lange. This inscription was added in 1932.

More than half-a-century after the fighting, the memory of the bloody struggle for white supremacy was still important in New Orleans. The mayor appointed a commission made up of descendants of White Leaguers to preserve the monument and advance the cause for which they fought and killed.

The newspapers of the day were not at all hesitant to report that the monument commemorated the war for white supremacy. Here is one example. It gets the date wrong, but the cause of the battle dead right.

On the anniversary day, the newspapers carried stories of the festivities that would take place under the auspices of the Daughters of the Confederacy and other groups that celebrated the heritage of the White League. This article was particularly interesting because it not only announced the celebration, but it contained interesting descriptions of the “battle” from participants.

Times-Picayune

Coverage of the ceremonies emphasized the continuity of the spirit of the Confederacy in the White league’s coup. For example here is a photo of a United Daughters of the Confederacy leader placing a wreath at the monument.

More coverage of the role of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in preserving the memory of the White League.

If you look at the New Orleans newspapers every September from the early 1970s, you will find annual wreath-laying ceremonies at Liberty Place by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The White Leaguers are typically referred to as martyrs or “our heroes” in the newspaper stories. Then for the 100th Anniversary coverage, the sense that “the Blacks” might not like the monument finally got in the newspaers.

On April 24, 2017 the monument was removed during the night.