Statue of Confederate general removed from a Louisiana city hall

A statute of a confederate general was removed from a city hall in Louisiana, according to multiple reports.

Video taken by The Daily Advertiser Saturday afternoon showed the statue of Gen. Alfred Mouton getting hoisted off of its base outside of the Lafayette City Hall as spectators cheered.

Photos of the removal were also shared to Twitter by KATC TV3. The news outlet said that a flag pole will be put in its place.

The Alfred Mouton statue has been removed from downtown Lafayette and will be taken to a secure location until a decision is made on where it will ultimately go. A flag pole will be put up in its spot at the corner of Lee Avenue & Jefferson Street. pic.twitter.com/CLrDmp58v3

— KATC TV3 (@KATCTV3) July 17, 2021

The removal comes after a decades-long legal dispute over taking it down.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy donated the statute to the city in 1922, but officials wanted to move it in 1980. According to The Advocate, the group successfully filed for an injunction to stop the move.

The city tried again to remove the Mouton statute in 2016, but ultimately did not do so because the United Daughters threatened a lawsuit, the newspaper reported.

In 2019, members of Move the Mindset filed paperwork to intervene in the dispute, and the city joined the group in 2020, according to The Associated Press.

The city reached a settlement with the United Daughters on Friday. Under the agreement, the city would be able to remove the statute to a location determined by the group, according to a local ABC affiliate.

The United Daughters have 45 days to tell the city where to move the statute, otherwise the city can dispose of it as it chooses, the news outlet reported.

The removal of the statue comes amid an ongoing push to remove Confederate monuments.

Last Saturday, the city of Charlottesville, Va., removed a statute of Robert E. Lee after a two-year legal dispute. The statute that was the site of a 2017 “Unite the Right” rally that resulted in the death of a counter protestor.

The House has passed legislation to remove artwork from the Capitol that honors people who defended slavery and served in the confederacy.