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Texas’ Confederate Memorial Attacked By Black Lives Matter, Jefferson Davis’ Statue To Be Removed?

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 05:20 PST, Jun 24, 2015

Texas’ Confederate memorial, located at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, has been vandalized by the Black Lives Matter movement. Although the Jefferson Davis statue was attacked before the Charleston church shooting as reminder of racism and slavery, many are now reconsidering whether or not the Confederate statue should be removed.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, a Baltimore Confederate memorial was defaced shortly after the Black Lives Matter movement started the trend by having a Charleston Confederate memorial spray-painted with their message.

Back in May of 2014, students have defaced the Jefferson Davis statue with messages like “Davis must fall” and “Emancipate UT.” Don Carleton, executive director of the Briscoe Center for American History at UT, claimed Texas’ Confederate memorial was commissioned during the early 1900s to remind everyone of states’ rights in relation to the federal government, not as a reminder of a slavery.

The number of Texas’ Confederate memorials have also been increasing over time, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans believes their efforts are not racist or offensive.

“I don’t think we’re trying to put up stuff just to put up stuff,” said Marshall Davis, spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Texas. “We don’t want to impede anyone else from honoring their heroes. We would like to honor our heroes with the same consideration, tolerance, and diversity. The fact that the state of Texas joined the Confederate States of America is history. It happened. It’s not a matter of opinion.”

Other states are already facing similar situations, and a Missouri Confederate statue was defaced recently.

Following the actions of alleged Charleston shooter Dylann Storm Roof, attacks against the Jefferson Davis statue have only intensified over time. A students’ petition on change.org is demanding that the University of Texas remove any Confederate memorial since they believe the presidency of Barack Obama “marks a new era for the University of Texas.”

“We just believe the statue represents a history of racism and intolerance, and it has no place on this campus, which is a beacon of bringing all different kinds of people together and promoting diversity,” says Taral Patel, chief of staff for the UT Student Government, according to KUT.

Late Monday night, supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement had the Jefferson Davis statue spray-painted with a message.

In response, the president of the University of Texas at Austin, Greg Fenves, met with student leaders to form a task force which will decide what to do with the Jefferson Davis memorial. It is said they will evaluate options, although ultimately the decision is up to Fenves.

Texas’ Confederate memorial is not the only Jefferson Davis statue which might be removed. A Louisiana Confederate memorial also features the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and Shawn Anglim, the pastor at First Grace United Methodist Church, is calling on the New Orleans mayor to have the Confederate statue torn down.

“It is not something that unites us. It is not something to be celebrated,” said Angli, according to WWL. “It is something that divides us. A private memorial like this on city property is not acceptable. We need a concrete act and a symbolic act that tells us who we are going forward, and Mayor Landrieu has the opportunity and character to do that. President Jefferson Davis may be a part of our past and is part of our past, but it should not be a part of our future.”

Pastor Anglim’s church has a sign up front declaring his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Mayor Landrieu has already formed a committee to look into all the Confederate monuments and symbols in New Orleans, including a Robert E. Lee statue.

Do you think all United States Confederate memorial sites need to be torn down, as the Black Lives Matter movement believes? Or do you think they can serve as a symbol of states’ rights as Confederacy groups suggest?

[Image via Change.org]

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