Panel: ‘No racist intent’ in ‘Eyes’
AUSTIN — “The Eyes of Texas,” the famous school song of the University of Texas at Austin, was conceived with “no racist intent” and most likely was not inspired by a saying of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, contrary to popular belief, a university committee has concluded.
The committee’s report, released Tuesday, recommended that students not be required to sing “The Eyes of Texas.” But it also declared, under the boldfaced heading “key takeaways,” that the song “remains our alma mater.”
The anthem, written in 1902 by a UT student and Glee Club member, is performed at Longhorns football games and sung at weddings, parties and funerals across Texas.
The 58-page report said the song was not meant to glorify slavery, although in later decades it was performed at minstrel shows — an association the committee called “a painful reality of the song’s origin.”
Richard J. Reddick, the university’s associate dean for equity and chairman of the committee, said the re
port was not “a vindication” of the song, nor did it contain “a smoking gun.”
“I think one of the things that reading the report will do is help us reflect on what it means to be a university founded in the Postbellum Era, in the Jim Crow South, and to have parts of our history that are in that moment,” said Reddick, who is African American.
The song became a focus of controversy after the death of George Floyd in May 2020 ignited racial justice protests across the country and a reexamination of Confederate symbols.
A group of UT student-athletes called on the university last summer to rename campus buildings named after segregationists, remove statues of Confederate figures and discontinue “The Eyes of Texas,” among other demands.
The university renamed some buildings and acceded to some of the athletes’ other requests, but UT leaders stuck by “The Eyes of Texas,” despite complaints that its association with early 20th century minstrel shows made it an emblem of racism.
When protests continued, UT President Jay Hartzell, in November, appointed the Eyes of Texas History Committee to examine the origins of the song and propose ways “to educate the community on its history.” The 24 members include alumni, current students, former athletes, historians and others.
The report said the song’s lyrics were not intended to show “nostalgia for slavery” and that there was “a very low likelihood” that “The Eyes of Texas” had been inspired
by a line long attributed to Lee: “The eyes of the South are upon you.”
The report said the song, written by John Lang Sinclair, was “a message of encouragement and accountability to the students and faculty at the then-fledgling university.”
The lyrics say in part:
It was first performed by the varsity quartet of the UT Glee Club on May 12,1903, during a student-organized minstrel show to raise money for the track team.
Later, Texas Cowboys minstrel shows, first held in Hogg Auditorium in 1940 and later in Gregory Gym, featured renditions of the song in blackface. Such performances continued until 1965.
“Although it was not written in dialect and does not appear to have been composed as a minstrel song, we are pained and uncomfortable with this aspect of its history,” the report said.
The Eyes of Texas History Committee “was never charged with considering whether the song should be changed,” the report states. Hartzell announced last July that the song “will continue to be our alma mater.”
Hartzell said in an interview this week that he did not believe that limitation undermined the committee’s ability to analyze the song without bias.
“I think it actually protected the effort of the committee,” he said. “I think if the committee had been formed, asked to cast a decision or cast a vote, if you will, over the future of the song, I think it would be hard for it to do the same kind of work. And instead, we tasked the committee with getting the facts out in the open.”
Longhorn fans, including a contingent of the athletic department’s boosters, have sent Hartzell messages rife with bigoted language and threats to withdraw or cease donations because of student protests over the song.
Former Texas football safety Caden Sterns, a vocal critic of the song, said some alumni told him and several teammates that they could “find jobs outside of Texas” if they did not participate in singing the alma mater.
Senior safety Demarvion Overshown tweeted, “All we can do is pray for them but we will not stop fighting for what’s right.”
As for protecting the right of student-athletes or band members to protest the song, the report included recommended ways to “memorialize” the song’s history and encourage “healthy” conversation.
“We can make sure we revisit student fan conduct in our games and venues to make sure that we do all we can there to make up the right kind of atmosphere we want for our student-athletes when they’re competing,” Hartzell said.
Among the most contentious aspects of the report is likely to be its examination of the lyrics’ origin. In writing them, Sinclair drew inspiration from then-university president William Prather’s favorite saying: “The Eyes of Texas are upon you.”
Prather attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Virginia after the Civil War. Lee was university president at the time and was “clearly a beloved figure to Prather,” the report said.
Lee is said to have been fond of telling students, “The Eyes of the South are upon you” — although the committee said it found find no primary source to verify that.
In a speech on Nov. 15, 1900, Prather regaled incoming UT students with a Civil War tale centering on Lee and Confederate Gen. John Gregg.
To inspire his brigade in the presence of Lee, Gen. Gregg roared to the soldiers, “Attention, Texas Brigade! Forward! The Eyes of General Lee are upon you!” After recounting this story, Prather told students: “I give you your marching orders for the session, ‘Forward! The eyes of Texas are upon you!”
“It’s important,” Reddick said of the link to minstrels shows and to Lee and Gregg. “That does not mean that, OK, ‘The Eyes of Texas’ is free and clear. Because it’s a onedegree (separation from) Lee. Prather was of that time (period).”
“We don’t want people to walk away and say it’s a vindication,” Reddick said. “Nor is it an implication, because ‘The Eyes of Texas’ is not frozen in 1903 or 1905, 1917 or 2006 even. It has evolved over time. So that’s an important part of the history. It needs to be confronted and embraced — not embraced, it needs to be understood as part of the origins.”
Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian has said his team will sing the song “proudly” after games in keeping with tradition.
Hartzell also envisions students, athletes, band members and fans all performing “The Eyes” together inside a packed Royal-memorial Stadium next season. Though he admits Texas will not reach that point without an open discussion and ongoing dialogue.
“My hope is that we’ll get to a place where people feel good about staying on the field and honoring each other, whether it’s fans in the stands honoring the studentathletes, student-athletes honoring the support from the fans,” Hartzell said. “But nobody is going to be required or mandated to stay on the field or sing the song.”