U. of Texas puts move of Jefferson Davis statue on hold

Breitbart Texas will continue to follow this on-going story about the future of this and other statues related to the confederacy on the UT-Austin campus.

The University will not relocate the Jefferson Davis and Woodrow Wilson statues from the Main Mall on Saturday as planned, after the Texas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans filed a temporary restraining order in state district court Friday afternoon. The University of Texas is removing their statue of Jefferson Davis from outdoors.

Marshall Davis, a spokesperson for The Sons of Confederate Veterans, spoke out against the move, saying it was against the wishes of George Littlefield, a major donor to the university who paid for the original construction of the statue, according to Dallas News.

In the midst of opposition to Confederate symbols, seen by many people as representing racism and slavery, “Black Lives Matter” was painted on the bases of some of the statues and “Dump the Chumps” was painted on the base of the Davis statue. The judge has yet to issue a temporary-restraining order (TRO), but university officials voluntarily decided to put off any moving plans until the court rules. The group is also claiming that the leaders of the 50,000 student campus have no unilateral authority of relocating the statue.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected a free-speech challenge by the group after a state board denied it a Texas license plate bearing the Confederate flag.

A statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis is on the main…

Universities have the discretion under state law to relocate statues on their campuses. “It’s the right thing to do to stand up to this nonsense”.

A court hearing is expected next week but has not yet been set.

Lyons said he was in touch with members of the Littlefield family who are “outraged” about the relocation and may be added on to the lawsuit, which seeks to keep the statues in place. “If they don’t have a towel, I can send them a specially designed one”.