New Orleans Confederate Monuments Controversy: 5 Things You Should Know

NEW ORLEANS, LA — As New Orleans plans to remove three monuments to heroes of the Confederacy — to Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard and President Jefferson Davis — supporters and foes of the controversial monuments have staged demonstrations. At times, they've become confrontational.

Here are five things you should know about the controversy:

The majority black city council in 2015 voted 6-1 to take the statues down.

• A majority of the city council decided the monuments were nuisances, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. There were legal challenges to the ruling, but they all came out in favor of the city council, according to multiple news reports.

The black community views the monuments as a sign of white supremacy.

• One of the anti-monument groups, Take 'Em Down NOLA, who attended the protests, says it believes the statues were symbols of racism and white supremacy. The group says it was working to "remove all symbols to white supremacy from the landscape of New Orleans with as a necessary part of the struggle toward racial and economic justice,” according to a statement posted on its Facebook page on Monday.

Civil War commemoration groups say the monuments are part of their cultural heritage.

• The Monument Task Committee, a preservation organization, argues the removal process was occurring before further legislation has a chance to be heard and urged citizens to call the state’s attorney general Jeff Landry to "ask him to file suit to save the monuments," according to its website.

A timeline hasn't been set.

• New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has said the monuments will come down sooner than later, but an actual timeline has not been set because of safety concerns, according to ABC News.

The demonstrations have been confrontational but largely peaceful.

• There were tense demonstration Sunday as both sides of the debate. New Orleans police put the number of demonstrators at about 700 and said they arrested three people involved in a scuffle near Lee Circle early in the afternoon. The demonstrations, however, were largely peaceful.

Photo by Gerald Herbert/Associated Press