AUSTIN — Texas A&M University will not remove a statue of Lawrence Sullivan Sul Ross, a former campus president, Texas governor and…
AUSTIN — Texas A&M University will not remove a statue of Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross, a former campus president, Texas governor and Confederate general, school officials said Monday.
“Anyone who knows the true history of Lawrence Sullivan Ross would never ask his statue to be removed, ” Chancellor John Sharp said in a statement. “It will not be removed.”
The announcement came just hours after University of Texas at Austin President Greg Fenves announced the removal of four statues there, saying nods to the Lost Cause had “become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.”
The UT Austin statues — depicting Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John H. Reagan and former Gov. James Stephen Hogg — were removed last night. Three will be relocated to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, where the university already houses a statue of Jefferson Davis removed two years ago. The statue of Hogg, who did not serve in the Confederate army, might be relocated to another campus, Fenves said.
The discussion over Confederate statues, monuments and other remembrances has raged for years in Texas, but picked up significant steam after this month’s racial clashed in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white supremacists who gathered to rally against the removal of statue of Lee clashed with counter-protesters.
Since then, a Dallas lawmaker has asked state leaders to restart a discussion over the Confederate monuments on state Capitol grounds. Gov. Greg Abbott indicated last week he was against their removal; Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick more forcefully reiterated this sentiment, while House Speaker Joe Straus said he was open to discussing their historical accuracy.
Ross, for whom another campus within the Texas State University System is named, was a Texas Ranger who fought the Native Americans before he enlisted in the Confederate States Army in 1861. He rose to the rank of brigadier general during the war. Afterward, he helped draft the Texas Constitution and served as governor between 1887 and 1891.
He became the president of Texas A&M University (then called the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas) , which was “seriously troubled” before his tenure, according to the Texas State Historical Association: “Under his presidency the number of students grew, many new buildings were built, and public faith in the institution returned.”
He later became the head of the Texas Division of the United Confederate Veterans.
In a statement, A&M President Michael K. Young defended Ross as a defender of the university.
“Without Sul Ross, neither Texas A&M University nor Prairie View A&M University would likely exist today. He saved our school and Prairie View through his consistent advocacy in the face of those who persistently wanted to close us down, ” he said. “The Sul Ross statue will remain.”
Most of the other public universities in Texas do not have any memorials, statues or other nods to the Confederacy. Texas Tech University System confirmed to The Dallas Morning News a building on its Lubbock flagship features the faces of at least two Confederate leaders, Lee and Johnston, and that the university will begin discussing their future with “various constituencies across campus.”
