Most attendees at UT’s public forum seek removal of Confederate statues
The University of Texas invited the public on Tuesday to talk about whether it’s appropriate to have monuments to Confederate Civil War figures on the South Mall of the school’s flagship campus — and the consensus was a resounding no.
The noontime forum drew about 200 people and two dozen speakers to UT’s Student Activity Center. The purpose was for students, faculty, staff and the larger community to offer their thoughts as a 12-member panel of appointees examines the history — and potential future — of the statues, including one of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The debate has become part of a national bout of soul-searching following the massacre of nine people in a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., last month.
Those agitating for removing or at least relocating the statues far outnumbered those in favor of the status quo. Just two people decried what one called “the steamroller of political correctness” while a third argued for a more nuanced reading of history in which noted figures are judged on the totality of their deeds rather than their worst. Everyone else wanted the things packed off.
Alice Embry said she grew up in segregated Austin schools and that UT’s dorms were still segregated when she
arrived in the 1960s. She said the statues were not to honor people who led the Civil War but rather symbols of institutionalized racism not worthy of the university. She also noted that fraternity shows featuring blackface performances and mock slave auctions weren’t unheard of when she arrived.
Terry Ayers, who represented the Descendants of Confederate Veterans, called out a couple of speakers who used the term “lily-white,” saying if he dared use the term “coal-black” he’d likely be shown the door. He also noted that not every Confederate soldier owned slaves.
“I’m here to tell you my great-great-grandfather did not own any slaves. He was just a poor dirt farmer who was called to defend his country,” Ayers said.
Rich Heyman, who teaches a cultural geography class at the university that features lessons about the statues, offered a historically provocative challenge to the statue’s supporters. He said the monuments had nothing to do with the validity of the Southern cause or fallen soldiers and everything to do with the era in which they were installed more than 80 years ago — a time of lynchings and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.
“Those statues are meant to commemorate the resurgence of white supremacy in the early 20th century and not the Civil War,” Heyman said.
UT President Gregory L. Fenves announced the panel’s formation after statues commemorating Confederate leaders were vandalized late last month. The likenesses of Davis and of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston were tagged with the words “Black Lives Matter” in red paint.
The Davis statue is particularly polarizing, critics say, bec ause it recognizes a man who not only condoned slavery but, in leading the Confederacy, betrayed his own country. UT’s student government passed a resolution calling for removal of the Davis statue in the spring.
A second forum will be held 3-5 p.m. July 15 in the Multipurpose Room of San Jacinto Hall.