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It was 68 years ago on January 19, 1954 when the 17 foot statue of Robert E Lee was hoisted from a crane due to a deteriorating pedestal . The day January 19th was chosen to do the repairs as it was the birthday of General Robert E Lee (January 19, 1807).

The Pedestal was 70 years old at the time of the repairs in 1954, so according to the harsh Louisiana Climate , it is due to be repaired again if any statue is put on it in the future.

When the Monument was unveiled on February 22, 1884 , it became a new tourist attraction to the city of New Orleans during the 1884-1885 World's Cotton & Industrial Expo which was located what is now Audubon Park.

(Robert E. Lee) Why is this man so honored in the South and respected in the North?

Lee was even respected by the soldiers of Union blue who fought against him during the War Between the States.

Here is some history many have forgotten or failed to learn about concerning Robert E Lee since the removal of his statues across the country.

During Robert E. Lee’s 100th birthday in 1907, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., a former Union Commander and grandson of US President John Quincy Adams, spoke in tribute to Robert E. Lee at Washington and Lee College’s Lee Chapel in Lexington, Virginia. His speech was printed in both Northern and Southern newspapers and is said to had lifted Lee to a renewed respect among the American people.

Dr. Edward C. Smith, a respected African-American Professor of History at American University in Washington, D.C., told the audience in Atlanta, Georgia during a 1995 Robert E. Lee birthday event, ‘Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee were individuals worthy of emulation because they understood history.’

Booker T. Washington, America’s great African-American Educator, wrote in 1910, ‘The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.’

American Presidents who have paid tribute to Lee include: Franklin D. Roosevelt, who spoke during the 1930s at a Robert E. Lee statue dedication in Dallas, Texas, Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower who proudly displayed a portrait of Lee in his presidential office.

During a tour through the South in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt told the aged Confederate Veterans in Richmond, Virginia, ‘Here I greet you in the shadow of the statue of your Commander, General Robert E. Lee. You and he left us memories which are part of the memories bequeathed to the entire nation by all the Americans who fought in the War Between the States.

A Final thought :

Archbishop Rummel, who desegregated the Archdiocese's Catholic schools in New Orleans, gave the invocation at the rededication ceremony of Robert E Lee.

Would an Archbishop who desegregated Catholic Schools destroy his vision of equality by a rededication of Robert E Lee if he stood for "White Supremacy?

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