University of Texas Removes Confederate Statues Under Cloak of Darkness
“These events make it clear, now more than ever, that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism”
Late Sunday night, under cloak of night, the University of Texas at Austin sneakily removed three Confederate statues from campus.
No prior notice was given, but construction crews toiled through the night beneath bright lights behind the protection of police-guarded fences to remove statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, and John Reagan.
The Texas Tribune reported:
Late Sunday night, 10 days before classes were scheduled to start, workers at the University of Texas at Austin began removing three Confederate statues from a prominent grass mall on campus.
The surprise news came with little notice, and the workers were done by sunrise. University president Greg Fenves announced that the statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston and John Reagan were being removed because they depict parts of American history that “run counter to the university’s core values.” His e-mail to the campus community was sent just before 11 p.m. A statue of former Texas Gov. James Stephen Hogg was also marked for removal.
“We do not choose our history, but we choose what we honor and celebrate on our campus,” he 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.”
Photographs from the scene showed workers using heavy machinery to pull the statues down. They worked under bright lights behind fences while police officers looked on.
…
A UT-Austin spokesman said in a text message that the university deliberately chose to remove the statues in the middle of the night “for public safety and to minimize disruption to the community.”
Fenves continued in his email, “these events make it clear, now more than ever, that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.”
We’re barely one week past the Charlottesville protests (perpetrated by a minuscule portion of the population) and suddenly, statues that have been in existence for decades magically morphed into symbols of hate. It’s just another example of the left’s insistence that inanimate objects are capable of violent acts and instigation all on their own (see also: guns). This unhealthy infatuation with symbolism blinds revisionists to the reality before them.
Tex Trib contd:
The three Confederate statues will be relocated to the Briscoe Center for American History. The statue of Hogg “will be considered for re-installation at another campus site,” Fenves said.
We’ve been covering the revisionist resurgence, now emboldened by the Charlottesville protests as they attempt to erase this country’s past to sate the feelings of the ignorant.
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Comments
Leftists will be Leftists will be neo-National Socialists.
It’s telling that progressive liberals practice their religion under a cloak of privacy, including the legal operation of Planned Parenthood to deny lives deemed unworthy, inconvenient, or profitable; but, not, color and class diversity generally, presumably because the logic and implications are nuanced or something.
Mark mt words. It won’t stop at Confederate symbols.
They didn’t stop with abortion and cannibalism of babies deemed unworthy, inconvenient, or profitable. Leftists are peace-mongers extraordinaire, including: elective wars, elective regime changes, and CAIR (catastrophic anthropogenic immigration reform). Under Obama’s oversight they opened abortion fields globally and created trails of tears from Africa to the Middle East to Asia to Eastern Europe.
You are absolutely right. Pretty soon they’re going to start mentioning that the American flag is flown at those rallies and we should ban it. Then on to something else.
If the neo Nazis wanted to really troll the left, they would start flying rainbow flags or something similar.
I like the way you think.
Appeasement never works.
As the saying goes, give a mouse (or in this case, a howling mob of violent leftist rats) a cookie, and he’s going to want a glass of milk next.
A former boss (now turned friend) used to say, ‘Give a pig a chair and he’ll want to get on the table.’ To the person who mentioned the flag. I heard someone on the radio mention Francis Key Scott owned slaves ergo abolish the anthem. It’s worth noting I’m Canadian and up here we have our own problems with the virus well call progressivism and the anthem is not exception. The Liberals have issues with a couple parts of the song (mostly because it’s not reflective of Canada’s ‘modern values’ i.e. empty headed bull shit) including the phrase ‘thy sons command’ which is problematic to them. Guess what their reasoning (if you can call it that)? It’s not inclusive and so they sought a more gender neutral line. They went for ‘all of us command’. Yup. Totally reflective of the conditions and circumstances of the times when MEN made up the army to fight. No, let’s deceive ourselves into thinking by imposing a modern sensibility on the past we’re somehow remedied it with intelligence. Thankfully the Senate is doing its job and knocking sense into these left-wing loons and blocking it. I hope it dies; the proposal. But I also wish for progressivism to whither.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senate-opposed-changes-o-canada-1.4053013
‘We somehow remedied’. An edit button would be nice. Apologies.
I thought that was Santa Claus.
The same thing could get real sporting if tried at Texas A&M. A key figure in A&M’s history is Lawrence Sullivan Ross, whose statue is prominently displayed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Sullivan_Ross
Dallas News reports
“Amid debate over Confederate monuments, Texas A&M will not remove Sul Ross statue”
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/higher-education/2017/08/21/amid-debate-confederate-monuments-texas-am-will-remove-sul-ross-statue
there is a reason why the Aggies refer to UT folks as teasippers. also there is an old pejorative that goes “only steers and qu**rs go to Texas”
I’m thinking that a school full of engineers that manage to crush themselves to death building a bonfire might think twice before engaging in an insult contest. Just a suggestion.
Ouch! That’s going to leave a mark.
Let’s see them try to rename Sul Ross University
I might get a chance to get in on this little war. One of the Soros Lib publications put out a list of “Confederate Monuments” in Texas that they want shut down and torn down. Turns out the archery club I belong to is one of them and it’s incredibly obscure. I’d love to see those little protesters show up at a venue where everyone is armed per the bylaws.
Color diversity denies individual dignity is racist and worse it’s selective (i.e. Pro-Choice).
It’s interesting, leftists will reconcile with the world’s leading slavers, mass abortionists, clinical cannibals, and class diversitists (e.g. racists, sexists, “=”), including contemporary progressive liberals; but, will not forgive their own predecessors. Too close to home, I guess.
Yes, while the leftist mobs are busy tearing down the Confederate statues, they say nothing about the mosques being built all over the U.S. in which an unrepentant slave owner and slave trader, Muhammad, is literally worshipped as “perfect.”
The hypocrisy of the left is, as always, off the charts.
Excellent point…. In fact slavery in the name of Mohammed is alive and thriving in the world today.
The enemy of my enemy! The push to import Islam is about destroying Christianity. Yet after that is accomplished how then do the liberals destroy Islam? Shave their then long beards and proclaim to be apostate. Me thinks by then they will have realized their folly!
When will Margaret Sanger be eliminated…. or Woodrow Wilson???
Pershing’s nickname before “Blackjack” for “N….” Pershing because of this Black troops.
If you’re an alum, vote with the wallet.
Don’t mess with Texas…
Sam Houston next.
Sam Houston University is in east Texas and the huge monument, 50 feet, is on hey 45. I think it would be bloody if anyone tried to remove any of his statues.
He is the father of Texas
My daughter played graduated and played basketball there , I know it well.
Pyrrhic victory. When alumni quit giving the President Fevnes can eat grass.
A cowardly time in our history. Attacks on monuments to Christopher Columbus occurring now. The Red Guard is here and voting won’t get rid of them.
I’m deeply saddened by the current attacks on Confederate monuments. Take for example the Virginia monument at Gettysburg. Those men – I’d venture to say none of them slave owners – stepped forward on a hot July 3rd afternoon when their commander called, “Up, men, and to your posts!” They crossed nearly a mile of open field into the deadly fire of several determined brigades of Pennsylvania infantry not to mention Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, under the command of 22-year-old Alonzo Cushing firing double-shotted canister into their ranks.
That monument salutes their bravery, their dedication to duty and honor, and within a couple of generations their grandchildren served in Europe with the same dedication. Can we not salute them? Can we not appreciate their fortitude and determination without embracing the evil of slavery?
I would argue that, yes, we can be proud of these men. Their history should be taught to our children and the fact that this country can produce men such as these should make us proud and should cause our enemies to think twice before confronting us.
it dismays me as well. I hold a Major in History. Fight for your history.
The fact that the Left is focused on 100 year old statues proves that they don’t want to have a real conversation about race.
It’s not about having conversations, that want to destroy us.
There will be war…
And Texas A&M recently wouldn’t let a speaker on campus secondary to fears of left wing riots, so A&M is not innocent
Since you’re an idiot, I won’t label that a lie.
The truth is that nobody was barred from campus. TAMU would simply not host an EVENT that was not sponsored by one of its many, many student associations. Per its rules.
TAMU has not obligation to provide an “event” forum for anyone. At all. Ever.
But nobody “wouldn’t let” anyone on the campus, nor did it muzzle any of the student body.
Thank you for setting the record straight. You are spot on, A&M is under no obligation to provide a forum for anyone. Particularly as not a single student group would sponsor them.
So, Mr. Rags, I’ll bet you have heard before the lines
“… If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
with
“…Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,…”
Well, yeah. But I gotta admit…
I really do hate liars. Call it a flaw…
You could have just corrected him without calling names.
True. Point taken.
Wow sense you clearly are an a$$hole Rags
You got no sense, gonzo.
He’s the house clown, nothing more.
Then you should find it easy to refute my facts and arguments.
Instead you just throw fallacies around like sewer covers. Which, for you, is appropriate.
I don’t argue with panhandlers either Ignatius.
I understand. They beat your ass into the pavement too!
Embarrassing…
Still gay trolling ay Ignatius? That is some crush you have on me. Is it because I called you a liar and a coward?
Well, since it is no the duty of government to acquiesce to the demands of an insignificant minority who claims they are offended by past actions, let’s roll.
First, let’s close down the mosques. Musselmen [Muslims]were slave traders for hundreds of years. Muhammad owned slaves himself. Muslims are also waging war against Western Civilization and have for over 1000 years. These monuments to a slave-holding society have to be removed. Then, of course, we have the English, another slave owning group. It is time to boycott all things English. The Irish were also slave owners, along with the Spanish [and all of their New World descendants], the French, the Chinese, the Japanese, most of the rest of the European states, at one time or another, the Russians, most of the Middle East [where it is still practiced], the Far East, even native American tribes practiced slavery. You might find a tribe of penguins that did not practice it, sometime in the past. But, virtually all human groups have practiced it, including Black African on the African Continent. So, exactly what are these people planning to do? How far is this effort to wipe out any memory of slavery going to go?
This is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to disrupt American society. The sooner people figure this out and ignore the whiners, the better for this country and everyone in it. Whenever one succumbs to extortion, the extortionist only asks for more.
“Under the cloak of darkness.” Darkness. Isn’t that where the WaPo tells us democracy goes to die? (And legislation like the Affordable Care Act and the NY Safe Act go to emerge as law?)
University president Greg Fenves announced that the statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston and John Reagan were being removed because they depict parts of American history that “run counter to the university’s core values.”
He did NOT go on to say that this only became true last weekend.
The gutless and cowardly liberal cesspool of Austin. What’s next girls, our books?
Several Board members of the Oklahoma City Public Schools proposed to rename four schools since they thought that they were named for Confederate figures. A newsman, who likes to keep track of the city’s history, noted that two of the schools were likely named after early civic leaders.
The newspaper had an editorial identifying four other schools which could be renamed based on what the people did. They noted – “Should these buildings be considered for renaming, too? When the issue is offensiveness, the slope can grow slippery in a hurry. Ultimately, as they pursue this issue, district officials should do what they ask of our students — their homework.”
http://newsok.com/slippery-slope-possible-with-school-name-changes/article/5560954
“Blacks who were never slaves,
fighting whites who were never Nazis,
over a statue erected by Democrats,
and it’s all Trumps fault?”
Ironic comment from a post on Facebook.
“Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross is honored on our campus as a former president of the school. Without Sul Ross, neither Texas A&M University nor Prairie View A&M University would likely exist today. He saved our school and Prairie View through his consistent advocacy in the face of those who persistently wanted to close us down,” said Michael K. Young, President, Texas A&M University.
Edward L. Blackshear, himself the son of slaves and former principal and chief administrator of Prairie View, praised Sul Ross in comments made in 1897 regarding the nobility of his character and for being an early advocate for the creation of the first state-supported historically black college, fulfilling a promise for doing so in the Texas state constitution. Historian and former Prairie View A&M University president George C. Wright stated “It should be noted that the President of Texas A&M (then A.M.C.) was also the President of Prairie View until 1948 when the title of “principal” was upgraded to “president.” Wright continued, “As such, Edward Blackshear’s comments at the time noting the vital support that Sul Ross as president provided to Prairie View were significant and a true testament to his contributions to African American students.”
President Young added, “The Sul Ross statue will remain. We will look at other historical artifacts across Texas A&M to assess their consistency with our core values.”
Chancellor John Sharp has asked the other universities in the Texas A&M System to review their historical artifacts as well, adding: “Anyone who knows the true history of Lawrence Sullivan Ross would never ask his statue to be removed. It will not be removed.”