Moral courage is a rare and all too valuable thing. Physical courage, the courage to charge into a fierce battle or burning building, as admirable as it is, occurs daily. Moral courage, the ability to stand against prevailing opinion, injustice, popular belief, racism, public judgment, etc, occurs all too infrequently and is often met by violence.
Mitch Landrieu served as mayor of America's most famous and loved Southern city, New Orleans. The accomplishments of his administration are legion: rebuilding the city after Katrina, restoring faith in government after a corrupt administration,, leading a recovery from bankruptcy. As a leader, he succeeded by almost any measure.
Despite those challenges, however, his biggest accomplishment was to look racism and hatred in its ugly face and confront it in a public, meaningful and substantial, Culture changing way. He initiated and oversaw the removal of statues of Civil War leaders revered by many white Southerners, statues that were erected in the first place, not as monuments to the traitors they depicted, but as monuments to the idea of slavery, injustice and racial hatred. The removal of these monuments represented a repudiation of the ideas for which these people stood and of the way their bigotry continues to play out in the minds of many, both in the South and the North, today.
Like all moral leaders, Landrieu faced hatred, threats, criticism, and every other form of vile behavior that can bring no pride to humanity.
This book traces the struggle to do the right thing, the moral thing by spending a great many of its pages discussing the background, the context in which the final removal of the monuments took place. It is not a story about a courageous mayor or a Southern city confronting hatred so much as it is a story about what America in general could do, needs to do, must do about the long standing moral cancer we continue to endure because we lack the moral fiber to finally and permanently put an end to it. ( )

My first impression of the long intro was that this book was just a drawn out “I have black friends.” But now I think it starts this way to disarm white readers with stories that likely resonate with many New Orleanians. By the time you get around the the last couple chapters that actually talk about the monuments, Landrieu has already won you over on a series of smaller issues, making otherwise reticent readers more likely to engage with his message and really think about what our Confederate monuments mean. By starting with NOLA pride and ending with NOLA pride, Landrieu is helping to remove a lot of the defensiveness many people feel about being told the cause their ancestors fought for was not as honorable as they thought. He has reshaped the issue to be less about how shameful these monuments are to focusing on being proud that we are not the same city that erected them AND using the removal of monuments to symbolize a commitment to fighting injustice. ( )

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In his book "In the Shadow off Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History", author Mitch Landrieu tells of his awakening to the meaning of many Confederate monuments in the South, and why he removed four of them in 2017 while he was serving as mayor of New Orleans. He also explains why he believes that other Confederate monuments should be removed from public lands.

Removing these monuments is a concept many are having trouble dealing with, and is currently being debated among National and local leaders. Some think of it as a black - white issue, or as a North - South issue, but Landrieu, as a white Southerner, has had to deal with both. He explains why he feels these Confederate monuments are long overdue for removal, and are looked at by many as outdate racial symbols. He explains that they've been defended in part by inaccurate historical education, and partly by a local culture among white southerners which overlook past racial inequalities. As Landrieu said, there is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence for it. Landrieu also explains that as opposed to being historical monuments, many of these monuments were commissioned well after the Civil War, and were installed in the early 1900's commemorating white racial dominance.

Another way to think about the issue is to consider how Germany has dealt with the Nazi symbols after World War II. Some Germans may well think of their grandfathers as simply patriotic soldiers, defending the fatherland. But Germany is not maintaining historical monuments celebrating Nazi soldiers, instead moving on from that time. That idea is discussed in detail in another book, "Learning from the Germans", by Susan Neiman. In it, she compares and contrasts how Germany came to grips with its treatment of the Jewish people in the 1930's - 1940's under Nazi leadership, and how Americans think of treatment of slaves and blacks in the Jim Crow era in the early 1900's. It's an interesting way to consider current and past behavior.

While there are many Confederate monuments being removed from public buildings and settings in Southern States in the past several years, many object to the removal of these statues of historical leaders and military heroes. Some locals feel these statues are a tribute to their land and peoples. But, thinking about the same problems in post-war Germany, few now would object to the removal of tributes to Nazi leaders or the Nazi flag. Germany has healed their scars, and Landrieu makes the case in his book that it's time that views on race and slavery similarly evolve in the United States.
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An engrossing, thoughtful, and honest read. As Mayor of New Orleans, Landrieu took a courageous stand by pushing for Confederate monuments to be removed. He explains his reasoning - and the difficulties he faced -- in great details. As a white Southerner with deep roots in the south, is an excellent spokesperson for a reevaluation of these sites. ( )