Confederate Group Sues UT Over Late-night Statue Removal

AUSTIN — The Sons of Confederate Veterans are suing the University of Texas at Austin for the second time in three years over the removal of statues from the flagship campus' main mall.The group's Texas chapter argues UT Austin President Greg Fenves broke the law when he ordered the removal of four statues late Sunday night. Three of the of UT statues depicted Confederate military and political leaders, and one a former governor who was also the son of a Confederate veteran.The statues' removal came one week after clashes over a similar move in Charlottesville, Virginia turned deadly. While the discussion over the cultural and temporal appropriateness of Confederate monuments have raged for years in Texas, the Virginia incident relit the conversation.City leaders like Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings are mulling the future of their own statues, a Dallas lawmaker has asked for the removal of a Confederate plaque outside his Capitol office and several other universities are making decisions to keep or clear away their nods to the Lost Cause.  Continue reading...