Posted on 08/11/2015 3:59:56 PM PDT by markomalley
A statue of Woodrow Wilson may be removed from the University of Texas statuary because of the underlying intent of the effigy, which was commissioned by a Confederate veteran who admired Wilson's presidency. A task force was assigned the duty of explaining why the statues need to come down, or at the very least have a plaque added which will provide some "historical context."
The reasoning behind the task force's recommendation is explained in its report. Six of the seven statues featured at the university were commissioned in 1916 by Confederate veteran and the school's largest initial benefactor George Littlefield during a time of "white Southern nostalgia." Four of the statues are Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Albert Sidney Johnston, and John Reagan. All of the statues are men Littlefield admired, including Wilson.
The report states the following as the reason these statues are in question:
[T]he statues were commissioned during a period of resurgent white Southern nostalgia for the social order of the old South embodied by the Confederacy. This “neo-Confederate” or “Lost Cause” movement, during which numerous Confederate monuments were erected across the South, paralleled the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and an upswing in discrimination and violence against people of color.1, 2 Despite claims by sculptor Coppini that Littlefield’s intent with his memorial to the Confederacy was to show a coming together of the two “nations” as soldiers departed for Europe to fight World War I, the memorial was a celebration of a new Southern patriotism in which a neo-Confederate or Southern nationalist approach was posited as the basis of that national unity through principles of white supremacy.
The report also notes that President Wilson objected to the commission because he would be displayed next to Confederacy President Jefferson Davis. At the time he said, "I must express my entire unwillingness to have my effigy mounted as is suggested in association with the proposed memorial. Moreover... I don’t fancy the partner they offer me."
If the university president declines to simply add plaques that would put the statues in historical context, the statues will be ordered removed and relocated to nearby American history museums. There is also an option to move the statues to less traveled areas of campus. In fact, the report offers five options for consideration whether to add plaques, remove all statues, or just remove and relocate some of them. It is stated that if they only remove the four Confederate leaders, a "new emphasis" would be aimed at the Wilson statue remaining because of his association with the former.
Controversy over these statues dates back to the 1960s, with a resurgence in the 1990s and 2003.
It’s official now: everything is racist.
Try to listen to Levin’s first hour and a half today.
Excellent!
“It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.” - Woodrow Wilson about the movie “Birth of a Nation” after viewing it during a special White House screening.
Dosen’t this seem like another step twards shiria law?
You know, the part about no graven images.
Amen FRiend! The gulf between a thoroughly evil being such as Woodrow Wilson and the heroic Robert E. Lee is immeasurable. Although both claimed Virginia as their birthplace, Wilson repudiated the values of the South and became just another northeastern leftwing progressive. It was Wilson's corrupt regime that paved the way for communism to infiltrate the land, ultimately leading to hussein's illegal seizure of power in 2008.
And that's precisely what's wrong with today's GOPe. Bryanism is just another word for socialism. True Conservatism opposes Bryanism and all forms of socialism/communism and 'RATism.
Actually, Wilson repudiated the worthy values of the South, but hung onto racism. Jim Crow arrived in the Federal government, which had been fully integrated since Reconstruction, thanks to Wilson.
Other way around. The Northeast became progressive like Wilson was. At the time, they weren't that crazy about federal income taxes, which were more popular in the South.
No, of course not, none of that matters because he was a democrat.
Barry Obama can trace his Communist/Progressive roots to Woodrow Wilson. If they want to take it down and drop it in the Gulf, that’s fine with me. However, I don’t much care for UT Austin taking down statures of Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee...
I’m so glad you said that because that is exactly what is going on and with this stupid muslim pos thing we have in the White House, this is what is going to continue until we put our foot down...
Just imagine for a minute if Trump/Cruz were in the White House? Trump would have them out of country on a boat to hell before they knew what hit them....
Dynasty
We've engaged in some conversations over the past half-decade but I've never gotten your take on William Jennings Bryan, shown below. He was northern-born (Illinois) and lived most of his life in Nebraska and is, in my mind, the father of the progressive movement in these United States. What are your thoughts about the so-called "Great Commoner"?
Isn’t the University of Texas at Austin also the home of the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, named after the man who famously said that the Civil Rights Act would “have those n*ggers voting Democratic for 200 years”?
It’s also where the anti-American Walter KKKronkite got “educated”. For a number of years Kommie Kronkite’s voice was used on television advertisements for tu. As much as anything else, that made me an Aggie fan!
Yes. So when are they going to re-name the LBJ School?
Do we get all our income taxes refunded, too?
I wish
Bryan favored government take-over of the railroads, but he and the populists didn't quite think things through to the degree that the progressives did. I mean they weren't as power-hungry. They were more focused on farmers and thought that they could make government bigger by assigning it more tasks, yet keep it small and under the control of the voters.
It wouldn't have lasted. Sooner or later you'd get a very big government and people who really wanted the power would be running things.
As much as I despise Woody Wilson, which should be clear from my posts, one good thing did happen under his watch: The Palmer Raids, a roundup of communists and other leftists. I say "under his watch" because by then, ol' Woody was by and large even more brain dead than unusual. Like Operation Wetback, the Republic would be well-served by a revival of the Palmer Raids version 2.0, casting a much wider net that also includes mooselimbs.
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