Robert E. Lee Monument (New Orleans, Louisiana)
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Robert E. Lee Monument | |
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| Location | Lee Cir. (900--1000 blocks St. Charles Ave.), New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Coordinates | 29°56′35″N 90°4′20″W / 29.94306°N 90.07222°WCoordinates: 29°56′35″N 90°4′20″W / 29.94306°N 90.07222°W |
| Built | 1884 |
| Architect | Roy,John; Doyle,Alexander |
| Governing body | Local |
| NRHP Reference # | 91000254[1] |
| Added to NRHP | March 19, 1991 |
The Robert E. Lee Monument in New Orleans, Louisiana was built in 1884. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.[1]
A racial confrontation occurred at the monument on January 19, 1972, the birthday of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Addison Roswell Thompson, a perennial segregationist candidate for governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans, and his friend and mentor, Rene LaCoste (not to be confused with the French tennis player René Lacoste), clashed with a group of Black Panthers. Then eighty-nine years of age and a former opera performer in New York City, LaCoste was described as "dapper in seersucker slacks and navy sports jacket" and with a "white mustache and goatee" resembling Colonel Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken. LaCoste and Thompson dressed in Klan robes for the occasion and placed a Confederate flag at the monument. The Black Panthers began throwing bricks at the pair, but police arrived in time to prevent serious injury. At the time of the Thompson/LaCoste confrontation, David Duke, then an active Klansman who served from 1989 to 1992 in the Louisiana House of Representatives, had been among those jailed in New Orleans for "inciting to riot".[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15.
- ↑ Patsy Sims (1996). [http://books.google.com/books?id=2-84635lwKYC&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=a+roswell+thompson&source=web&ots=x7GQssWlS1&sig=ybubCwwMC0CWZHfmLPq34WrK4woref> "The Klan"] (2nd ed.). Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 152–153. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
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