As Nation Grapples Over Confederacy Symbols, Texas Fiercely Protects Theirs

AUSTIN, TX — Under the cover of darkness last Sunday, statues honoring Confederacy figures were abruptly taken down from the University of Texas at Austin campus, the school president categorizing them as figures promoting the subjugation of black people. Despite such swift action at the university — at a time of heightened awareness of their symbolism — several markers, monuments and portraits paying overt homage to the South remain at the Texas Capitol.

And there’s no sign those tributes — about a dozen markers, statues and portraits honoring soldiers and generals who fought to preserve slavery for the South — are coming down anytime soon. Removing such statues “won’t erase our nation’s past, and it doesn’t advance our nation’s future,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in response to the UT-Austin statues’ removal in the wake of the university’s action.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick echoed the sentiments in a radio interview. "Gosh, our universities are supposed to be where we learn about history and not repeat those moments of the past, and there was no discussion here,” he said, as reported by the Texas Tribune. “What are we going to do with Gettysburg? Are we just going to tear down every statue in Gettysburg? I mean we can go on and on and on and on."

Related story: University Of Texas At Austin President Orders Removal Of Confederate Statues

As the nation grapples with what to do with its Confederate statues, deep-red Texas seems firmly rooted in its conviction to allow them to stay put on Capitol grounds. Recent tragic events fueled by white nationalism — the death of a counter-protester when a white supremacist mowed down a crowd with his car earlier this month and the fatal shooting by a white supremacist of nine parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 — have sparked a national movement to remove Confederate symbols that often have the effect of energizing racists.

But state Republicans seem unmoved by the carnage, viewing their own monuments as a sort of sacrosanct, tangible history lesson that shouldn’t be disturbed.

And so, scattered across Capitol grounds are prominently displayed tributes to the Confederacy — from subtle markers to gargantuan tributes carved from marble weighing several tons looming large across the landscape.

Confederate Soldiers' Monument

Located (rather appropriately, as it happens) on the South Lawn of the Capitol grounds, the monument honoring six Confederacy figures, including Confederate President Jefferson Davis, is the mother of all statues on the state grounds. It’s a giant thing — looming large in one of the most visible parts of the Capitol grounds along the hallowed promenade leading from Congress Avenue to the Capitol’s south entrance — along a corridor dubbed “The Great Walk.”

As if the sheer scale of the homage weren’t enough of a tribute, the affixed plaque serves to further glorify the efforts of those depicted: “Died for States' Rights Guaranteed Under the Constitution. The people of the South, animated by the spirit of 1776, to preserve their rights, withdrew from the federal government in 1861. The North resorted to coercion. The South, against overwhelming numbers and resources, fought until exhausted.”

Hood's Texas Brigade Monument

Installed in 1910, this monument honors Hood's brigade, the Texas Brigade Army of Northern Virginia. Like the Texas Rangers monument (below), it was created by artist Pompeo Coppini.

Terry's Texas Rangers Monument

On the East Grounds, a tribute to the Confederate soldier commands attention. Among the oldest monuments at the site, the statue flanking The Great Walk was created by artist Coppini. According to a pamphlet offering visitors a self-guided tour, the monument depicts the 13 states that withdrew from the Union to form the Confederacy.

Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque

On the first floor corridor of the Texas Capitol, a plaque etched with the "Children of the Confederacy Creed" was affixed to an interior wall in 1959, almost in prescient anticipation of the growing debate about what the Civil War was being fought for that rages today. "We, therefore, pledge ourselves to preserve pure ideals," the plaque mounted at the height of the Jim Crow era reads. The plaque, which is mounted just 40 steps from his office, reads, in part, "To study and teach the truths of history (one of the most important of which is, that the war between the states was not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery)."

Several lawmakers have called for the taking of a crowbar to the plaque toward its removal given the questionable historical accuracy — some might say revisionism — of its etched text.

Cannons

Along the south entrance, armaments of war are prominently featured. Cannons used during the Texas Revolution and Civil War are featured, often serving as a photographic focal point for kids climbing atop them.

Tributes to the Confederacy aren't limited to the outdoors. Inside the Capitol building, within the state House and Senate chambers, portraits hang on the walls enshrining key Confederacy figures.

Jefferson Davis Portrait

The onetime president of the Confederate holds a special place of honor in the Senate chamber. While other Confederate figures rendered in paint line the periphery of the chamber where 31 senators meet each legislative session to craft laws. But the Davis portrait is hung on the main wall at the room's epicenter, chained off to deter visitors from accessing the area. Davis' portrait is near that of Stephen F. Austin and across from paintings depicting the Battle of the Alamo, serving as something of a centerpiece in a tableau featuring the lieutenant's original walnut desk fronting a reproduction drapery treatment.

Albert Sidney Johnston

Also in the Senate chamber, albeit in a less prominent spot than the Davis portrait, is a picture of Albert Sidney Johnston, a Confederate soldier in full- uniform regalia. Highly regarded by Jefferson Davis as the finest Confederate general officer, Johnston was killed in the early stages of the Civil War at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862.

Dick Dowling Portrait

In the House chamber, Confederate Army volunteer Dick Dowling is given a special place of honor in the hallowed walls. Born in Ireland, Dowling would rise to the rank of first lieutenant while serving in the recapture of Galveston in January 1863. He was celebrated for fortifying Fort Sabine in holding back the Federal fleet, ultimately emerging victorious in the battle for Sabine Pass—considered the most spectacular Civil War military engagement in Texas.

The debate over Confederate tributes like those outlined above shows no signs of abating anytime soon, as the nation grapples with what to do with the vestiges of a military force fighting against the tactics of national unity, largely in an effort to preserve slavery. Yet even amid this reconsideration, conservative Texas is emerging as among states most jealously guarding its Civil War vestiges.

Curiously, Texas also is among a handful of states where conservatives have fought mightily to retain its monolithic version of the Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds — in rebuke to the tactics of separation of church and state and bolstering conservatives' winning mix among their political base in unabashedly mixing politics with religion.

The Ten Commandments monument also is likely to stay put in the seat of a deeply conservative state. But how lawmakers fiercely championing its presence are able to square its ideals with the pro-slavery views of those honored in marble, granite, iron and paint throughout the Capitol is anyone's guess. It is, as they say, complicated.

>>> Photos by Tony Cantú