TEXAS: Confederate Statue at UT-Austin Has Been Removed
AUSTIN, Texas — Statues of Jefferson Davis and Woodrow Wilson were removed on Sunday from the pedestals at the University of Texas on which they have stood for 82 years.
This statue of Jefferson Davis has received much attention after the controversial confederate flag debate earlier this summer.
“This is an iconic moment. It really shows the power of student leadership,” said Gregory Vincent, university vice president for diversity and community engagement.
He was referring to a student government resolution that called for removing the statue of Davis, president of the Confederate States, from the university’s Main Mall.
Historians note that Wilson, a U.S. president, screened The Birth of a Nation, which portrayed black people as villains and the Ku Klux Klan as heroes, at the White House, and that he segregated federal offices, restrooms and cafeterias.
The Davis statue will be installed in the university’s Briscoe Center for American History while Wilson’s will be placed at a yet-to-be-decided location on campus, university officials said.
The university announced that it would remove the statues from the main, or south, mall after the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans failed to win a court injunction to block the plan.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Sandra Bieri, a 1961 Texas graduate and retired law-firm librarian. “It’s overdue.”
Kirk Lyons, the Confederate group’s lawyer, said he would press on with a legal fight to return “ Brother Jeff” and “Brother Woodrow,” as he calls them, to the mall.
He said the university’s action amounts to “ISIS-style cleansing of history,” a reference to Islamic State’s destruction of statues and other cultural artifacts in the Middle East.
–dispatch.com
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SOUTH CAROLINA: Gamecocks to Wear Helmet Stickers Honoring Emmanuel Nine
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A tragedy that shocked both a state and a country will be commemorated by the former’s flagship football program.
(Photo credit: South Carolina athletics)
South Carolina announced Sunday that its helmets will be adorned with a sticker honoring the nine individuals gunned down in cold blood in a Charleston church shooting this past June. The inexplicably heinous act, committed by an individual with ties to hate groups, prompted a national discussion on the Confederate flag, and both the football program and the athletic department weren’t shy in letting their feelings be known on the issue.
“Whether it’s Greenville, Columbia, Charleston or any other cities in South Carolina, we feel a tremendous sense of pride in this state,” a statement from USC athletic director Ray Tanner. “The tragedy that happened in Charleston doesn’t just affect people in Charleston; it affects the entire state. We feel very much a part of that at the university. Coach Steve Spurrier and University President Harris Pastides felt very strongly that the ‘Emanuel 9’ should be recognized.”
According to Tanner, head coach Steve Spurrier had a significant voice in the decision to honor the victims.
“Coach Spurrier was very engaged in this process,” Tanner said. “Football coaches are usually focused on just getting ready for their season, and he very much is too, but he took the time to be engaged with what we were going to do. He is excited that we are going to do the helmet sticker.”
The sticker will be worn on every helmet for every game this season, the first of which will be the opener against North Carolina Thursday.
–nbcsports.com
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LOUISIANA: West Monroe High Limits Use of Confederate Flag at Events
WEST MONROE, La. –West Monroe High School has banned rebel flags from flying on campus, but Principal Shelby Ainsworth said clothing featuring the flag will still be allowed at games, as will flags that aren’t mounted on poles.
Ainsworth said the administration started the school year by telling students the flags cannot be flown from vehicles on campus before, during or after classes. He said the administration confiscated about six flags Friday morning and will return them to the students or parents.
West Monroe High School is enforcing a rule against flying rebel flags on campus before, during or after school.
(Photo: THE NEWS-STAR)
“This morning, I announced that we’re going to take that same approach and that same policy to our jamboree, to our ball game tonight,” Ainsworth said of the Neville match-up Friday night. “We want to be hospitable in all of our ball games.”
Ainsworth said the administration’s response is based on nationwide response to the Confederate flag tied a church shooting in South Carolina, and they “don’t want to do anything on our campus that would rub salt in a national wound.”
He said the school has not restricted any rebel-spirited attire, and flags mounted on pole have never been allowed into the stadiums.
“People can wear what they want to wear to the ball games — the public, our students,” he said. “We’re just focused on the flying of the Confederate flag.”
“Our whole purpose is to try to keep the mascot and everything that we have without it causing such a distraction.” Ouachita Parish School Board Superintendent Don Coker said.
Aisnworth said the school officials aren’t trying not to make wearing the flag a big issue.
“If it’s a situation where they flaunt it; if it’s very blatant, we’re trying to stay away from that as a student body,” he said, adding they want to address each individual issue alone and separately.
“We certainly would discourage anything that would take away from what our kids are there for — to play football and to show all their hard work in the course of the years,” Coker said. “I hate the fact that this is taking away from the kids themselves.”
“We want tonight to be all about two strong communities coming together,” Ainsworth said. “No doubt it’s a rivalry, but them coming together in support of their teams — two teams that stand a wonderful chance of making a run for the state championship in each of their classifications. We want it to be a night of competition, not a night spent worrying about these flags.”
-thenewsstar.com
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