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University of Texas removes controversial Jefferson Davis statue

By Amy R. Connolly
The University of Texas-Austin removed a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states, Sunday. Pictured above Jefferson Davis. Image from United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division
The University of Texas-Austin removed a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states, Sunday. Pictured above Jefferson Davis. Image from United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The University of Texas-Austin removed a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states, Sunday after a Confederate heritage group lost its legal bid to save the controversial effigy.

The statue, which has stood on the university campus since 1933, was cut free from its limestone pedestal, wrapped and taken to be refurbished so it can later be placed in the school's Briscoe Center for American History. A statue of Woodrow Wilson, the nation's 28th president, is also scheduled to be removed.

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The Davis statue has been at the center of controversy that began earlier this summer when UT-Austin President Greg Fenves decided to move it, at the recommendation of an appointed task force, amid the national conversation about the Confederacy and hate.

Last week, a judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order from the Sons of Confederate Veterans to stop the construction, and the school was allowed to proceed. The group has vowed to continue to pursue the issue, likening the statue removal to Pearl Harbor and saying the Sons of Confederate Veterans has lost a battle but not the war.

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"What has happened was a cultural atrocity — this is a discretion of art," said Kirk Lyons, the lawyer for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "Hiroshima is coming. Greg Fenves will rue the day."

About 100 students watched as the statue was removed, some cheering.

"When we were making fun of it back in March, we didn't think it would result in anything but re-sparking a debate," said Xavier Rotnofsky, UT-Austin Student Body's President and a driving force behind removing the statue.

Davis was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, from 1861-1865. A staunch advocate of the expansion of slavery, he died in 1889.

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