XPost: alt.los-angeles, alt.society.liberalism, alt.politics.democrats.d   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc   
   From: rkoch@banmlkday.com   
      
   AUSTIN - The University of Texas at Austin on Sunday morning   
   removed a statue of Jefferson Davis from its main mall, over the   
   objections and amid ongoing legal action by Confederate groups.   
      
   Students and others cheered as larger-than-life sized bronze   
   statue came down, just as the campus' historic clock tower stuck   
   10:15 a.m. Some even sang a few bars from fictitious band   
   Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye."   
      
   The move was made just days after a state District Judge Sarah   
   Crump shot down an attempt by the Sons of Confederate Veterans   
   to block the statues' removal. The removal took about an hour   
   and a half; it will be refurbished and relocated to the Dolph   
   Briscoe Center for American History, also on UT's campus.   
      
   Gregory Vincent, UT's Vice President for Diversity and   
   Community, called the moment "iconic."   
      
   "It really shows the power of student leadership," said Vincent,   
   who chaired a student-faculty task force that suggested either   
   removing or altering the statue. It, as well as several other   
   statues representing Confederate leaders, had been vandalized   
   several times over the years by individuals viewed it as a   
   representation of the South's heritage of slavery and racism.   
      
   Confederate groups will continue to fight the change, said their   
   attorney Kirk Lyons, who said the Sons of Confederate Veterans   
   will seek for Davis' statue to be put back or put in a more   
   prominent place on campus than at the Briscoe Center.   
      
   Lyons called the removal an "ISIS-style cleansing of history and   
   tradition from a so-called institution of higher learning," and   
   said as long as he is "above the ground" he and the SCV Texas   
   chapter will seek to have the statue put back in its original   
   place.   
      
   The removal cost about $15,000. Austin-based company Vault Fine   
   Art Services was contracted to undertake the removal. A company   
   has not chosen, nor has a cost estimate been issued, for the   
   refurbishment.   
      
   A statue of former President Woodrow Wilson will also be removed   
   to maintain symmetry on the mall. The campus has not yet decided   
   where to relocate the Wilson statue. Several other statues,   
   including those of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Albert   
   Sydney Johnson, Confederate Postmaster General John Reagan and   
   James Hogg, the first native Texan to be elected governor, whose   
   father was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army   
   will remain on the mall.   
      
   http://www.chron.com/local/education/campus-   
   chronicles/article/UT-removes-Jefferson-Davis-statue-6474484.php   
                   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)