A statue of Jefferson Davis is seen on the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas.
Eric Gay / AP
A statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, will be moved from its prominent location at the center of the University of Texas at Austin, marking a success for a student-led movement that gained momentum after the shooting massacre at an historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
"Jefferson Davis had few ties to Texas, but played a unique role in the history of the American South that is best explained and understood through an educational exhibit," Gregory L. Fenves, president of the university, said in a statement Friday.
The statue of the Confederate leader has been displayed for decades in the most prominent open space of the University of Texas at Austin campus, sitting along with other Confederate leaders, such as Albert Sidney Johnston, John H. Reagan, and Robert E. Lee.
Student movements at the university have previously pushed to remove the Confederate statues but fallen short.
"This is decades in the making," Xavier Rotnofsky, student body president of the university, told BuzzFeed News.
Rotnofsky said he was elected earlier this year partly on a campaign to renew efforts to move the Davis statue.
Efforts to do so gained momentum in June after nine people were gunned down inside a historically black church in Charleston, allegedly by a 21-year-old white man who appears to have a history of using Confederate symbols to espouse racist hate. The massacre sparked a nationwide movement to remove Confederate iconography from public grounds across the U.S.
"It led to a humongous outpouring of people's feelings about the issue," Rotnofsky said.
On Friday, after a 12-member task force recommended removing the statue, Fenves announced the Davis statue will be moved to the university's Dolph Briscoe Center for American History as part of an educational exhibit.
"As a public university, it is vital that we preserve and understand our history and help our students and the public learn from it in meaningful ways," Fenves said.
The statues of the other Confederate leaders will remain in the university's Main Mall, Fenves said, because of their "deep ties to Texas."
The university, however, will consider placing a plaque in the Main Mall to provide historical context to the statues, according to the statement.
Though the task force had suggested removing all the statues with Confederate links, Rotnosfsky said the students' main efforts concentrated on Davis, who was positioned in the most prominent position of the space.
"Not only was he a leader of the Confederate movement, but he is in the South Mall, one of the most prominent parts of the university," Rotnofsky said. "That's why we thought it was absurd."
LINK: Jindal Campaign Defends Plan to Block Removal Of Confederate Monuments in New Orleans
LINK: Murders In Charleston Reignite Efforts To Abolish Symbols Of Confederacy Nationwide
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1MsNjb1
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