How a change in power left a Lafayette statue untouchable ctpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ctpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
How a change in power left a Lafayette statue untouchable
ANDREW CAPPS, Lafayette Daily Advertiser
May 22, 2021
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LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) Forty years ago, an incoming Lafayette mayor and a local Confederate history group quietly agreed to a plan that would ultimately make the city’s statue of Confederate Gen. Alfred Mouton untouchable for decades.
In April of 1980, outgoing-Mayor Kenny Bowen, who had recently lost his re-election bid to Dud Lastrapes, was planning to move the Mouton statue from its place in front of the old City Hall downtown to the new City Hall on University Avenue.
But Lafayette’s United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter, which donated the statue to the city in 1922 during a Jim Crow-era resurgence in white supremacy across the South, was searching for a way to derail Bowen’s plan.
Forty years ago, an incoming Lafayette mayor and a local Confederate history group quietly agreed to a plan that would ultimately make the city’s statue of Confederate Gen. Alfred Mouton untouchable for decades.
In April of 1980, outgoing-Mayor Kenny Bowen, who had recently lost his re-election bid to Dud Lastrapes, was planning to move the Mouton statue from its place in front of the old City Hall downtown to the new City Hall on University Avenue.
But Lafayette’s United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter, which donated the statue to the city in 1922 during a Jim Crow-era resurgence in white supremacy across the South, was searching for a way to derail Bowen’s plan.
Lafayette City Council approves emergency ordinance for drainage, maintenance projects katc.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from katc.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bayou Vermilion Flood Control | $1.75 million (Parish Council)
Robley Drive Detention Pond | $1.85 million (Parish Council)
Coulee Granges/Coulee Ile des Cannes Flood Control | $1.45 million (Parish Council)
Malapart Detention Pond | $1 million (City Council)
Bayou Vermilion Spoil Bank Removal | $3.85 million (City Council)
River Oaks Property Detention Pond | $1 million (City Council)
The detention ponds are intended to slow the flow of water to major drainage canals and the Vermilion River by detaining floodwaters during major storm events, and the Vermilion River spoil bank removal may help the bayou hold more water during storms by removing built up sediment that has lowered the river’s depth to just a couple of feet in certain areas in Lafayette.