Be they reverent testaments to New Orleans' military history or shameful displays of its racist past, the fate of four city monuments will head to the desks of seven elected lawmakers.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu turned a proposal over to the City Council this week asking its members declare statues dedicated to Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard

and a monolith to the Battle of Liberty Place "nuisances" under city law — a first step toward ordering their removal.

Landrieu proposed pulling the statues off their pedestals and instead displaying them indoors in an "appropriate facility," putting them in storage or disposing of them altogether.

Are Confederate statues nuisances? New Orleans City Council to decide | NOLA.com