NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – Following a march through New Orleans’ busiest street, the Black Lives Matter-aligned group ‘Take ‘Em Down Nola’ announced their list of “demands” from the City, saying they need $5 million annually to pay for education and salaries of African-American artists and historians.
“We have two very simple demands,” the lead organizer of Take ‘Em Down Nola said following protests, which began with taunts towards New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and protesters hopping barricades.
“We know that they’re simple because the city can do this and we know what we have to do to demand that the City do it,” the organizer said.
Among those two demands is a mandate for the City to use taxpayer money via reallocating public funds or “use their influence to raise” $5 million a year for the group’s own education program, along with paying the salaries of African-American historians and artists in the city.
The Take ‘Em Down Nola representative said the $5 million would “create jobs for local black youth, would create jobs for local black historians and create jobs for local black artists who really hold this city down.”
“We demand that artists get paid for the work that they do,” the organizer continued.
Take ‘Em Down Nola said the $5 million in taxpayer money would also go towards paying for more plaques across the city “that will tell accurate historical information.”
The group has long called for the removal of all historical monuments pertaining to the Civil War in New Orleans’ public square.
Recently, Take ‘Em Down Nola led a protest where they attempted to physically remove the city’s Andrew Jackson monument in the French Quarter, but ultimately failed, as Breitbart Texas reported.
Take ‘Em Down Nola organizers said opponents to the removal of monuments “are trying to convince folks that we want to take these monuments down because we don’t want to talk about slavery anymore.”
However, the representative for the group said it’s the opposite, saying “No, we want to talk about slavery as much as we possibly can.”
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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