University of Texas to re-erect statue of James Hogg after removing it in 2017 because of Confederate ties

A statue of James Hogg, the son of a Confederate general, will be re-erected on the University of Texas campus after being removed in 2017 along with three other statues of historical figures with ties to the Confederacy. 

UT President Gregory Fenves made the announcement in a letter to the UT community Thursday, lauding the first Texas-born governor's contributions to the state while acknowledging that he was a child during the Civil War with a "complicated and nuanced legacy." Hogg signed into law the state's first Jim Crow bills while leading the state from 1891 to 1895. 

Fenves had four statues quietly removed from their pedestals in the middle of the night in August 2017 after white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Va., and a counterprotester was killed. In addition to Hogg, the statues depicted Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate army; Albert Sidney Johnston, a general in the Texas, U.S. and Confederate armies; and John Reagan, a Confederate postmaster general.