A Statuary Shakedown

About a month ago, after a discussion of the controversy surrounding Davy Crockett’s death, I asked my students a question related the past in the public present.  At the University of Texas at Austin, there are a few statues of Confederate leaders.  Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis are the most notable figures, but most folks would need to read the weathered inscriptions on the statues of Albert Johnson and John Reagan to discover any connection to the controversy of having Confederates (and some alleged sympathizers) on campus.  Since every few years at UT there are movements to have the statues removed, I asked my freshmen (a group, admittedly, composed mostly of whites and Hispanics) whether they thought the statues should be removed.  The response was mostly in the negative.  Students seemed to know that these figures’ legacies were complicated, but thought that the statues should remain.