UT Confederate Statue Move Delayed Pending Judicial Review

A University of Texas task force has recommended moving a campus statue of Confederacy President Jefferson Davis – or adding an explanatory plaque for historical context.

A statue of Jefferson Davis stands on the campus of the University of Texas, Friday, August 14, 2015, in Austin, Texas.

Only a few days following the new University President Greg Fenves declared that he would be uprooting the century-old statue from the centre of the campus, the cancellation had been announced but left statues of other Confederate figures untouched.

“We are confident we will move ahead with these plans”, Susswein said.

Sons of Confederate Veterans’ petition for temporary restraining order, injunction against the University of Texas [pdf]. The university has agreed to wait to move the statues until a hearing can be held on the request.

Davis said the group also was unhappy that renovations to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, where the Davis statue is intended to be housed, would not be finished for more than a year.

The statue had been targeted by vandals and had come under increasing criticism as a symbol of racism.

In court filings, the Sons of Confederate Veterans argue that the [Charleston] South Carolina shooting set off “orchestrated national hysteria and pressure” to remove Confederate symbols.

The University of Texas at Austin will temporarily delay relocating its statue of Jefferson Davis from the campus’ main mall after a Confederate veterans group on Friday asked a state district court to block the move.

The Supreme Court has refused a free-speech challenge by the group following a state board denying it a Texas license plate that bears the Confederate flag. “If they don’t have a towel, I can send them a specially designed one”.

“We don’t feel the ramifications of Littlefield’s will and wishes have been addressed fully”, Davis said. In March, the university’s student body government nearly unanimously voted for the statue’s removal. The document does not say whether or not the statues have to stay in place.

Fenves wrote in a letter to the University of Texas community about the decision to take the monument and how it would be best for the school, according to The Texas Tribune.