Mitch Landrieu, the current Mayor of New Orleans, recently gave a speech on the removal of several Confederate statues throughout the city.

The 23-minute speech is eloquent, as Landrieu explains the importance of removing statues dedicated to the likes of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard.

"First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy," Landrieu said. "These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for."

"As a community, we must recognize the significance of removing New Orleans' Confederate monuments," Landrieu concluded. "It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock of, and then move past, a painful part of our history. Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause."

Removal of the Confederate statues began a month ago when the city took down the Liberty Monument. The monument honored the Crescent City White League, an organization created in 1874 to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing. From there the city removed statues of Lee, Davis, and Beauregard.

The removal of the statues caused controversy both in New Orleans and beyond. Most recently, Karl Oliver, a Mississippi Republican, spoke out against taking down the statues and went as far as to say that any lawmakers that take them down "should be lynched." Oliver has since apologized for the remark.

Watch a video of Landrieu's speech below.