University of Texas removes Confederate statues from campus

KVUE-TV, Austin

Show Caption Hide Caption University of Texas removes Confederate statues overnight University of Texas President Greg Fenves ordered the statues' removal, saying in a statement that "Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism."

AUSTIN — When students begin classes at the University of Texas on Aug. 30, they won't see statues honoring the Confederacy on campus at the South Mall.

On Monday, the university removed its remaining Confederate statues.

After violent incidents in Charlottesville, Va., the president of the University of Texas, Greg Fenves, said in a statement late Sunday that it's become clear "that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism."

Early Monday morning, the first statue was removed.

Fenves said he spoke with current students, alumni, and reviewed a 2015 task force report before deciding that the statues of Gens. Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, Confederate Postmaster General John Reagan and former Texas governor James Stephen Hogg should be removed from the campus' Main Mall.

More: When a bronze Confederate needed to retire, University of Texas found a home

Fenves said the Lee, Reagan and Johnston statues would be added to the collection of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History for "scholarly study," while the statue of Hogg will be reconsidered for another location on campus.

The statue of Hogg was the first removed Monday. That statue was commissioned at the same time as the others, a spokesman said.

Less than 30 people, both supporters and opponents of Fenves' order, congregated after midnight behind barricades near the statues. There was a heavy police presence and some arguments occurred between those gathered.

Mark Peterson, who identified himself as a University of Houston student, was seething at the removal of the statues.

"I hate the erasure of history and my people's history ... people of European descent who built this country," the 22-year-old said. "It burns me to my core."

Mike Lowe, an activist for the removal of Confederate statues in San Antonio, was driving to Dallas when he heard the statues were coming down, turned around and drove to campus. Lowe, 37, who is African American, engaged in a brief but tense argument with a white male protester until police stepped in to separate them.

More: Confederate monuments prompt protests across USA

"They have no other reasons than 'you are erasing our history.' Their reasoning is flawed. These monuments represent white supremacy, and black lives haven't mattered in this county the same as a white man's matters," Lowe said.

UT is relocating statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan & James Stephen Hogg. Read more: https://t.co/mKtjiADRVe — UT Austin (@UTAustin) August 21, 2017

This isn't the first time the university removed a Confederate statue from campus. In 2015, after the deadly shooting of nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C., the statue of Jefferson Davis was moved from the main mall and placed in the Briscoe Center.

The Davis statue is the centerpiece of a Briscoe Center exhibit — titled "From Commemoration to Education" — that uses old letters, diary entries and original sketches to tell the story of how the statue came to be and why it was later removed from its original spot on UT campus.

Virginia: Ex-capital of the Confederacy grapples with statues, race and reconciliation

Fenves' statement concluded: "The University of Texas at Austin has a duty to preserve and study history. 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."

Contributing: Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; The Associated Press. Follow KVUE on Twitter: @KVUE

North Carolina: Duke University removes statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee

Mississippi: Guards posted at Confederate statue in Mississippi after online threat

More: America's 'Confederate infrastructure:' Too big to hide, move or raze