NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — Activists with Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the organization Take ‘Em Down NOLA stormed the French Quarter’s iconic monument to President Andrew Jackson, demanding it be removed from the public square.
Chanting “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” hundreds of left-wing activists marched throughout New Orleans, carrying signs reading “Make American not Racist for the First Time” and “Use your white privilege to fight white supremacy.”
Although Mayor Mitch Landrieu already removed four Civil War-era monuments throughout the city, as Breitbart Texas reported, Black Lives Matter leaders say it was not enough.
“The mayor did a half-ass job,” one activist told the crowd. “He proposed removing four, and there’s many more. So four is not enough.”
“We know what white supremacy really represents and what it does,” the speaker continued. “So we are introducing an ordinance that will make it mandatory, not voluntary, but mandatory that the City of New Orleans get rid of all the white supremacy monuments, school names, street names and park names that are currently named for these white supremacists.”
Roughly 10 to 12 supporters of the monuments and President Donald Trump showed up to the Take ‘Em Down NOLA protest and were immediately chanted at and surrounded.
The protests came after increasing demands nationwide from left-wing organizations and politicians that monuments with any links to the Confederacy be removed from public spaces.
Trump has opposed the removal of historical monuments, saying the calls will not stop until monuments to former U.S. presidents, like Jackson, Jefferson, and Washington, are removed.
BLM and Take ‘Em Down NOLA have previously stormed the Jackson monument, chanting “No justice, no peace” and “F*ck the police,” Breitbart Texs reported.
A recent poll by National Public Radio (NPR) recently found that a whopping 62 percent of Americans oppose the removal of historical monuments, Breitbart News reported.
Major General Andrew Jackson successfully led U.S. forces against the invading British Army into the Battle of New Orleans, considered the final battle of the War of 1812. Jackson was later sworn in as the seventh President of the United States in 1829.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.