UT removes Confederate inscription that it previously said would stay

The University of Texas has quietly removed an inscription honoring the Confederacy and Southern pride from the South Mall nearly a year after UT President Gregory L. Fenves said that the inscription “will remain in place.”

Fenves told the American-Statesman this week that he decided this spring that the inscription had to go. The inscription is dedicated to “the men and women of the Confederacy who fought with valor and suffered with fortitude that states rights be maintained” and who were “not dismayed by defeat nor discouraged by misrule.” It makes no mention of slavery.

“It is inappropriate for our goal of diversity and inclusion on campus,” Fenves said.