Updated Aug. 21 at 3:50 p.m.


The statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan and James Stephen Hogg have been removed.

For reaction to the news of The University of Texas at Austin to relocate the statues, see this story. An interactive timeline of Austin's history with Confederate symbols can be viewed here.



Robert E. Lee statue on The University of Texas campus[/caption]

Posted Aug. 20 at 11:22 p.m.


The University of Texas President Greg Fenves has ordered the removal of four Confederate statues from the Austin campus, according to an online statement issued late Sunday. Statues depicting Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan and James Stephen Hogg were reportedly in the process of being removed from the Main Mall as of the 11 p.m. announcement.


Fenves said the decision was a direct reaction to the Aug. 12 violence at Charlottesville, Virginia, and the June 2015 church shooting in Charleston, S.C.


“These events make it clear, now more than ever, that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism,” Fenves said in a statement.


Two statues depicting Jefferson Davis and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson were also removed in 2015. All but one of the four remaining statues will be relocated to the UT Dolph Briscoe Center for American History where the Davis statue is now located.


The statue of Hogg, a former Texas governor whose father served in the Confederate army—but he was too young to serve himself, will be considered for relocation to another campus site, according to the announcement. School spokesperson J.B. Bird told The Texas Tribune the university is removing Hogg's statue because "the entire statuary is one exhibit, so it all goes together."


“The University of Texas at Austin has a duty to preserve and study history. But our duty also compels us to acknowledge that those parts of our history that run counter to the university’s core values, the values of our state and the enduring values of our nation do not belong on pedestals in the heart of the Forty Acres,” Fenves said in a statement.