Jonathan Bachman / Reuters
New Orleans started taking down the first of four prominent Confederate monuments in the city early Monday morning, at about 1:30 a.m. The city is the most recent Southern stronghold to remove symbols interpreted by many to memorialize white supremacy and racism. The first monument to be removed overnight was one that “commemorates whites who tried to topple a biracial post-Civil War government in New Orleans,” according to local reports. City officials chose to take it down overnight in order to minimize disruption from those who take issue with the removal. Some have sent death threats. “There’s a better way to use the property these monuments are on and a way that better reflects who we are,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told the Associated Press.