(CNN) A large crowd broke into cheers Thursday after the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four monuments to the Confederacy from prominent places in the city.

The 6-1 vote means officials will take down statues of Gens. Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. An obelisk dedicated to the Battle of Liberty Place will also go.

It's one of the strongest gestures yet by an American city to remove symbols of Confederate history, following a trend in many Southern states to take down the Confederate battle flag.

Historic societies in the 300-year-old city supported the removal of the monuments, and the proposal was introduced by a majority of City Council members.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu described the move as a "courageous decision to turn a page on our divisive past and chart the course for a more inclusive future."

Council member Nadine Ramsey said New Orleans needed to stop living "underneath the shadows" of monuments to people who supported slavery.

"We need not honor these individuals and moments from the past that do not meet our standards of decency, equality and nondiscrimination," she said.

Council member Stacy Head cast the only vote against taking down the monuments, saying the action would create more division and not solve the city's real problems.

"It will not improve the socioeconomic balance of the city," she said. "If it would make the city more color blind, if it would create more balance, I would sacrifice almost any physical object to get us to that point."

Charleston slayings were a tipping point

Photos: Charleston church shooting Photos: Charleston church shooting In this image from the video uplink from the detention center to the courtroom, Dylann Roof appears at a bond hearing June 19, 2015, in South Carolina. Roof is charged with nine counts of murder and firearms charges in the shooting deaths at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17. Hide Caption 1 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old charged with murdering nine people in a church shooting on Wednesday, June 17, is escorted by police in Shelby, North Carolina, on Thursday, June 18. Hide Caption 2 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Law enforcement officers in Charleston, South Carolina, stand guard near the scene of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Hide Caption 3 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting A police officer directs a police vehicle in front of the church on June 18. Hide Caption 4 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Two law enforcement officials said Roof confessed. Roof said he wanted to start a race war, one of the officials said. Hide Caption 5 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Police in Charleston close off a section of Calhoun Street early on June 18, after the shooting. The steeple of the church is visible in the background. Hide Caption 6 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Charleston police officers search for the shooting suspect outside the church on Wednesday, June 17. Hide Caption 7 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting People in Charleston pray following the shooting on June 17. Hide Caption 8 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting A woman joins a prayer circle on June 17. Hide Caption 9 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting A man kneels across the street from where police gathered outside the church on June 17. Hide Caption 10 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Police gather at the scene of the shooting on June 17. The church was formed in 1816. Hide Caption 11 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting People pray in a hotel parking lot across the street from the scene of the shooting on June 17. Every Wednesday evening, the church holds a Bible study in its basement. Hide Caption 12 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting An armed police officer moves up Calhoun Street on June 17. Hide Caption 13 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting People gather after the shooting. Hide Caption 14 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Police stand outside the church. Hide Caption 15 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Police close off a section of Calhoun Street near the scene of the shooting. Hide Caption 16 of 17 Photos: Charleston church shooting Police in Charleston released this security-camera image that they say shows Roof entering the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Hide Caption 17 of 17

Landrieu said the church slayings in Charleston, South Carolina, moved him to take action.

Photos: Evolution of the Confederate flag Photos: Evolution of the Confederate flag A veteran of the Confederate States of America examines a Union water bottle in front of a Confederate flag. Here's a look at the evolution of that flag. Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Evolution of the Confederate flag The first national flag of the Confederate States of America was created in 1861 and had seven stars to represent the breakaway states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Evolution of the Confederate flag The second National Flag of the Confederacy was issued by the Confederate Congress on May 1, 1863. This flag was designed to have a distinct difference from the Union's Stars and Stripes. Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Evolution of the Confederate flag The third National Flag of the Confederacy was the final flag of the Confederate government and was adopted on March 4, 1865. The flag was not used long before the Confederacy surrendered. Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Evolution of the Confederate flag The Confederate Battle flag known as the "Southern Cross" has 13 stars to represent the defeated Confederate States of America. Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Evolution of the Confederate flag Dixiecrats resurrected the "Southern Cross" flag as a political symbol around the time President Harry Truman supported efforts to end lynchings and desegregate the military in 1948. During that same period, the Ku Klux Klan began using the flag more widely. Hide Caption 6 of 6

A week later, Landrieu announced the planned ordinance.

He addressed the City Council on Thursday , saying that New Orleans has many monuments, but he wanted these four removed because they are the most important.

"This is the right thing to do at the right time," Landrieu said.

"As we approach the Tricentennial, New Orleanians have the power and the right to correct historical wrongs and move the City forward. The ties that bind us together as a city are stronger than what keeps us apart," he said, according to a City Hall news release.

Monuments called 'nuisances'

The ordinance approved by the council declares the Confederate monuments "nuisances" and called for them to be removed. The statues are unconstitutional, said the proposed ordinance marked Calendar No. 31,082

A monument to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, is one of four monuments called a "nuisance" by the ordinance the New Orleans City Council approved

"They honor, praise, or foster ideologies which are in conflict with the requirements of equal protection for citizens as provided by the constitution and laws of the United States, the state, or the laws of the city and suggests the supremacy of one ethnic, religious, or racial group over another."

Monument supporters say it's not about race

Landrieu requested the vote to banish specters of racism. But opponents of the plan steered away from any racial argument.

Keeping the figures of the Confederacy was not about preserving racial injustice, they said, but about honoring figures who fought to protect the city.

New Orleans, which was the largest city in the Confederacy, fell to Union forces in 1862 and was under federal occupation beyond the Civil War's end in 1865.

No place for Lee

One prominent artist who wanted the figures gone also skirted the issue of race. Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, who is African-American, said that Lee in particular had no historic place in the city.

"This symbolic place in our city should represent a great New Orleanian, or it should be an open space that represents our latest prevail and how people helped us, not a person who had nothing to do with our city and who indeed fought against the United States of America and lost," Marsalis told CNN affiliate WDSU

Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard was a Louisiana native, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis lived in New Orleans after the war and died there.

A New Orleans monument to Louisiana native and former Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard is one of four that will be removed.

Statue has stood since 1884

Lee's statue stands 60 feet high atop a neoclassical column at what was christened Lee Circle in his honor.

The Robert E. Lee Monument has stood in New Orleans since 1884.

It was originally called Tivoli Circle. Most Mardi Gras parades snake right past it.

Lee faces north, looking in the direction of his former enemy, and has stood there since 1884, the history department at the University of New Orleans says . Both Davis and Beauregard attended the monument's dedication.

Their statues were erected in the 1910s.

A fourth monument, probably the most contentious, will also be taken down.

The monument to the Battle of Liberty Place commemorates an uprising in 1874 of the White League against federal forces and police in an attempt to overthrow racially integrated governance put in place during Reconstruction.

Mayors have tried to remove the monument to the Battle of Liberty Place in the past. Thursday's New Orleans City Council vote makes it one of four pieces that will be taken down.

Former mayors, including Landrieu's father, Moon Landrieu, have attempted to have this monument removed or altered.

When asked what would happen to the removed monuments, Landrieu suggested a park that would reflect the complete history of the city, from before the American Revolution to the present. That park, he said, would be a place where "history can be remembered and not revered."

He said city leaders should consider forming a commission to decide what to do about other monuments.

Council President Jason Williams said, "After a long and thoughtful debate on this issue, I am pleased that we have reached a conclusion. Thank you to all citizens who have participated and made your voices heard during this process. We all may have differing perspectives, but share a common love and concern for the City of New Orleans."