Education

University Of Texas Might Remove Woodrow Wilson Statue

Wikimedia Commons

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Blake Neff Reporter
Font Size:

A panel at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) has issued a report recommending that the school remove its statues honoring President Woodrow Wilson and several Confederate leaders, or else add plaques designed to add “historical context.”

UT-Austin’s Main Mall is the university’s primary open space, and serves as the location for graduations and other major events. Seven statues occupy the area, and six of them were commissioned by Confederate veteran George Littlefield, one of the university’s most important early benefactors. Those honored with statues include four major Confederate figures: President Jefferson Davis, generals Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, and cabinet member John Reagan. Woodrow Wilson and Texas Gov. James Stephen Hogg also have statues. (RELATED: Renaming Movement Reaches Woodrow Wilson)

The task force was commissioned in June, the day after vandals defaced the Davis statue for the third time this year.

It may seem odd to lump Wilson in with the Confederates, as Wilson (a Southerner) wrote that he “rejoiced” in the Confederacy’s defeat. But UT-Austin’s panel says the problem lies with the intent underlying his statue, as his presence reflects a “neo-Confederate Southern nationalist approach.”

The report issued a variety of suggestions for how to handle the statues. In one, only Davis’s statue would be removed. Other proposals include removing only the four Confederates, removing three of the Confederates plus Wilson, and removing all of the statues. If the statues are moved, they could be relocated to a nearby American history museum or to other less prominent locations on campus.

If the statues aren’t moved, the panel recommends adding an explanatory plaque adding “context,” though it’s not clear what exactly the plaque would say. The panel seems to lean against this approach, warning that it would likely prolong the controversy over the statues while possibly encouraging further vandalism the school would have to pay to clean up.

“A significant portion of the campus community views the statues’ presence and placement as deeply offensive and unrepresentative of the university’s mission and values,” the report says.

But the report also notes that if they start tearing down every Confederate statue, they may have to purge the entire early history of the campus.

“If we relocate Reagan, a Texan, do we put a target on any building or other space that honors a Texan who also was a Confederate veteran?” the report asks. “Such a criterion would include much of UT Austin’s founding generation, such as Oran Roberts, Ashbel Smith, and Littlefield himself.”

As part of its deliberations, the panel collected input from over 3,000 people, who split almost evenly between the three options of moving only Davis, moving all the statues, and leaving all statues in place.

UT president Gregory Fenves will make a final decision on the statues soon, though he hasn’t said exactly when it will come.

Follow Blake on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel