Another statue of a Confederate leader has come down

A statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis was removed from the grounds of the University of Texas on Sunday after a successful campus campaign.

The statue was covered in plastic and then taken down from the perch it has occupied on UT’s Main Mall since 1933. It will be moved to an American history center at the university. A statue of President Woodrow Wilson is also being moved.

Here’s what the removal looked like: (the video is from Bryce Seifert):

The moving of the Davis statue is the latest in what has become a widening reexamination of the many tributes to pro-slavery Confederate leaders that still exist across the United States. This new bout of soul-searching has come in the wake of the Charleston church massacre carried out by white supremacist Dylann Roof. In response, South Carolina took the Confederate flag down from its place outside the state Capitol building.The Davis statue had become a target of controversy and activism on the UT campus. People spray-painted “Black Lives Matter” at the base of the statue and the university’s student government demanded that it be removed.

The UT administration ultimately sided with the students, but not before a Confederate heritage group went to court to try and stop the plans.Even though the Davis statue is gone, statues of several Confederate military leaders such as Robert E. Lee will remain in place. UT president Gregory Fenves said in a statement that the men are too important to Texan history to remove.