Controversial Lee Circle will now be called Harmony Circle

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— The controversial Lee Circle named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee now has a new name: Harmony Circle.

All this comes five years after they removed the statue of General Lee from the park. This name change of Harmony Circle celebrates racial equality and helps to eliminate traces of white supremacy.

“Harmony Circle, it is humbling and a sign of the times and speaks to the movement,” Mark Raymond Jr. with the City Council Street Renaming Commission.

Renaming Lee Circle to Harmony Circle is a movement that Mark’s been a big part of.

“Acknowledging there was wrong in the past, specifically celebrating confederates that we did for the last 100 years,” he said.

For 133 years, a bronze statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stood upon a pedestal in Lee Circle. In 2017, General Lee was taken down.

“It is time to acknowledge the pains of the past and step into a brighter future,” Raymond said.

After many discussions, the City Council Street Renaming Commission decided on Harmony Circle as the new name.

“I think Harmony is indicative of the way that we live in this city, the way that we all interact as this diverse and eclectic pot of gumbo,” he said.

He went on to say, “When I think Harmony Circle, I think New Orleanian, I think Haitians, I think Irish Immigrants, Italians, African Americans that make up the great city. It is time for us to step into a better light and where we want to be tomorrow and how we want to be better,” he said.

To be clear the street around the park is called Tivoli Circle and that won’t be changing. They will be putting plaques that read Tivoli Circle. The name that’s changing to Harmony Circle is the park within.

The name change will next go through a series of administrative steps.