As protests against police violence and white supremacy swept away dozens of longstanding memorials to the Confederacy this summer, a 105-year-old monument on the courthouse lawn in Lake Charles, La., remained standing. Until Hurricane Laura tore the statue atop it down. “It is a blessing, a small blessing, in a very devastating situation,” said Davante Lewis, who grew up in Lake Charles and supported the monument’s removal. The monument was the object of anger and protests after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by the police in Minneapolis. The political decision over its fate largely broke down along racial lines, although Lake Charles’s mayor, Nic Hunter, a Republican who is white, had expressed support for removing it.

Source: New York Times August 27, 2020 21:33 UTC