With Paper Monuments, New Orleanians Draft the City’s History Themselves

During the initial months of President Donald Trump’s term, activists around the country raised their voices calling for the removal of monuments to the U.S. Confederacy. New Orleans became a focal point for this campaign with local groups like Take ‘Em Down NOLA pushing city officials to eliminate all symbols of white supremacy. Not everyone agreed. The contractor originally hired to do the work resigned after receiving death threats finding his car burned.

Thus far, New Orleans has removed four Confederate monuments, but instead of rushing to fill those empty pedestals, the city hit the pause button in order to reflect on the best way to replace them. The Paper Monuments project, a participatory imagining of the monuments New Orleanians would like, stepped into that pause to involve New Orleanians in the conversation about what should come next.