University Of Texas At Austin President Orders Removal Of Confederate Statues

AUSTIN, TX — In an abrupt announcement Sunday night, University of Texas at Austin President Gregory L. Fenves ordered removal of the remaining statues honoring Confederate figures from campus grounds, dispatching crews working through the night in relocating them from the school's Main Mall.

Statues honoring Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston along with one depicting John Reagan, a postmaster of the Confederacy, were being relocated to the university's Briscoe Center for American History, Fenves said in an email to students. A fourth statue of James Stephen Hogg, the first native-born governor of Texas and the son of a Confederate general, will also be relocated somewhere other than the open campus, the school president said.

Police were stationed along a perimeter of the south mall where the statues were being removed, blocking access to the site of the statue removal. Curious students and other passersby were stopped by police as they tried to get a closer look at the statue removal site, but the scene was peaceful with a smattering of people milling around at around 1:30 a.m. just outside the edges of the South Mall.

University Of Texas Removes 4 Confederate Statues Overnight

The stretch of 21st Street was closed off entirely, with additional street closures all the way to 24th Street as crews worked through the night, under powerful lighting, to remove the statues.

The relocation comes on the heels of a protest that turned deadly at the University of Virginia, where white supremacists had gathered to protest the proposed removal of a monument depicting Lee. A woman was killed when an alleged white nationalist rammed his car into a group of counter-protesters supporting the removal of the statue while decrying white supremacy.

Fenves alluded to that Aug. 13 Virginia incident in making the announcement and suggested the sudden removal of the four remaining Confederacy-related statues was being conducted under the cover of darkness to avert a similar confrontation.

“Last week, the horrific displays of hatred at the University of Virginia and in Charlottesville shocked and saddened the nation,” Fenves said in the email sent to students. “These events make it clear, now more than ever, that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.”

To read Fenves' full email, click here.

"The University of Texas at Austin is a public educational and research institution, first and foremost," Fenves wrote. "The historical and cultural significance of the Confederate statues on our campus — and the connections that individuals have with them — are severely compromised by what they symbolize. Erected during the period of Jim Crow laws and segregation, the statues represent the subjugation of African Americans. That remains true today for white supremacists who use them to symbolize hatred and bigotry."

In explaining the statues' removal, Fenves wrote what the monuments represent is anathema to the ideals the university espouses. He also suggested the removal of the statues did not equate the ignoring of history.

"The University of Texas at Austin has a duty to preserve and study history," Fenves wrote. "But our duty also compels us to acknowledge that those parts of our history that run counter to the university’s core values, the values of our state and the enduring values of our nation do not belong on pedestals in the heart of the Forty Acres."

The removal of the statues came the night before most students return to campus after the long summer break. Fenves suggested the timing of the student influx was opportune given his decision to have the statues taken down.

"We do not choose our history, but we choose what we honor and celebrate on our campus," the president wrote. "As UT students return in the coming week, I look forward to welcoming them here for a new academic year with a recommitment to an open, positive and inclusive learning environment for all."

Notwithstanding such diplomacy, Fenves aso made clear what he believes the statues represent, correctly noting most such statues were installed during the Jim Crow era — not in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War — as a way of further subjugating black people.

The most ardent supporters of keeping such statues up often suggest those types of statues were built to honor a Southern history rather than tacitly endorsing the institution of slavery over which the Civil War was largely fought, avoiding mention of a timeline to their construction. Yet even Lee himself stated on the record his opposition to the construction of such tributes to the Southern cause, including tributes to him in the form of statues.

"Erected during the period of Jim Crow laws and segregation, the statues represent the subjugation of African Americans," Fenves wrote. "That remains true today for white supremacists who use them to symbolize hatred and bigotry."

This isn't the first time the university has removed a controversial statue after a national tragedy with racist underpinnings. After the 2015 fatal shooting of nine people in Charleston, South Carolina, by a young man espousing white supremacy, the university took down its statue of Jefferson Davis from the Main Mall. The statue of the former president of the Confederacy now resides in the history museum on campus. The Sons of Confederate Veterans sued to prevent that statue's removal in a lawsuit that ultimately was unsuccessful.

The statues removed starting late Sunday were the last remaining tangible tributes to Civil War figures remaining on campus.

On Monday morning, Austin Mayor Steve Adler applauded the move to reinstall the statues to a historical setting. "Putting these statues in a history museum appropriately puts this past where it belongs," Adler said in a statement.

>>> Photo of Gregory L. Fenves via University of Texas at Austin