Wynton Marsalis has called for the City of New Orleans to remove the statue of Robert E Lee and “rename and repurpose the circle that bears his name.”
The trumpeter, composer and New Orleans native–who currently serves as artistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City–made the proclamation in an Op-Ed that ran on NOLA.com today. The piece touches on the many reasons why Marsalis believes the monument should be removed, as well the legacy of pervasive racism on the culture of New Orleans.
Lee Circle. Photo credit: Infrogmation of New Orleans.
A portion of Marsalis’ piece reads:
Our national myths and symbols tell us what we need to know about ourselves. They commemorate grand victories, evoke despair over tragedies and elicit joy over triumphs. Some celebrate courage under fire, while others remind us of what must never happen again. The most significant of these symbols represent values that should be considered and reconsidered by each generation as part of its civic duty…
Like the Constitution, national stories and symbols also need amending as time and custom demand. There can be as much benefit in removing things of little worth as there is in erecting things of great value. Be it a person, city or country, there are always aspects of personality that can be improved. For all there is to love about New Orleans, a pervasive racism and inequality has plagued our civic life since the earliest days.
This foul condition forced our greatest ambassador, Louis Armstrong, to choose not to be buried in this home that he cherished and glorified night after night before the world audience. He was hurt to the bone by what he’d seen and experienced here. And though he represented our city as a place of magic, mystery and good times, he lived our shameful legacy of social injustice and racism. In 2015, that tradition is no longer a skeleton in our closet: It’s a whole cemetery. Now is the perfect time to remove the head tombstone.
While thousands of people petitioned the city to replace the statue with a monument to Allen Toussaint in the weeks after the legendary songwriter and producer’s death, Marsalis does not mention the proposal. However he does ask, “When one surveys the accomplishments of our local heroes across time from Iberville and Bienville, to Andrew Jackson, from Mahalia Jackson, to Anne Rice and Fats Domino, from Wendell Pierce, to John Besh and Jonathan Batiste, what did Robert E. Lee do to merit his distinguished position?”
The full Op-Ed can be found here.
