Editorial: Examining history’s place

Historical icons of racism have a place in our nation — we call those places history museums, not university lawns or capitol flagpoles.

Students at the University of Texas at Austin continued their fight to remove several statues depicting Jefferson Davis and Woodrow Wilson from the university’s Main Mall. Yet, the metal men were hard to budge as the Sons of Confederate Veterans appealed the decision to remove the two statues, calling it an “ISIS-style cleansing of history.”

Davis and Wilson, historical icons of Confederate racism, have been hallmarks of the university’s Main Mall for 82 years. This past Sunday, the Davis statue was relegated to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History in a move that we hope will inspire others to critically examine Confederate icons’ places in modern society.

“As a public university, it is vital that we preserve and understand our history and help our students and the public learn from it in meaningful ways,” said university President Gregory L. Fenves. “Jefferson Davis had few ties to Texas but played a unique role in the history of the American South that is best explained and understood through an educational exhibit.”

The university does not yet have a plan for the Wilson statue.

The decision to remove the statues at UT Austin came after Black Lives Matter protestors sprayed their slogan across several statues on campus in June, prompting the circulation of a student government resolution calling for its removal.

In Baltimore, the same slogan was recently spray-painted on a Confederate statue erected by the Maryland United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1903. Like in Austin, the act has opened up conversation on the statue’s role in the city.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced her plan to convene a commission of experts to lead research and public conversation about the city’s Confederate monuments and other historical assets, ultimately being charged with making recommendations for preservation, new signs, relocation or removal by the end of the year.

We at The Pitt News support UT Austin’s decision to remove the statues and reallocate them to more appropriate settings and believe similarly controversial and potentially harmful historical elements should be afforded the same critical attention.

We reject the notion that removing Confederate symbols from public spaces is a “cleansing of history.” By critically examining and deciding the role of such symbols in our modern society, we produce a more inclusive society.