Confederate Symbols Cropping Up In Texas; Students, NAACP Push Back
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EASTLAND COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Vandals defaced the Jefferson Davis statue on the University of Texas campus this week with the words, "Davis must fall" and "Emancipate UT."
Student leaders are seeking to remove the century-old statue that recognizes the president of the Confederacy, "We thought, there are those old ties to slavery and some would find it offensive," said senior Jamie Nalley, who joined an overwhelming majority of the Student Government in adopting a resolution in March supporting his ouster.
As students take aim at Davis, however, there is a controversial move afoot: The number of sites in Texas on public and private land that honor the Confederacy is growing.
The Texas Historical Commission has recognized more than 1,000 such sites from far South Texas to the upper reaches of the Panhandle.
Meanwhile, the Sons of Confederate Veterans are planning others; including a 10-foot obelisk a few miles from the Davis statue to honor about 450 Confederate soldiers buried at the city-owned Oakwood Cemetery.
Besides the obelisk, other recent projects include a Confederate memorial along Interstate 10 in the East Texas city of Orange that will feature 32 waving flags representing Texas regiments of the Confederate army, along with 13 columns for each Confederate state. That project began after a Confederate Veterans Memorial Plaza was unveiled two years ago in downtown Palestine, near what the NAACP says was the site of a "hanging tree."
As for Jefferson Davis, student leaders and the NAACP say his statue has no place on the UT campus since his link to Texas is primarily based on the state's ties to the Confederate States of America.
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