Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    College Advising
    Serving Higher Ed
    Chronicle Festival 2025
Sign In
Relics

What Happened When One University Moved a Confederate Statue to a Museum

By Cailin Crowe September 10, 2018
Three years ago, the U. of Texas at Austin took down a monument to Jefferson Davis and moved it to the campus’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. That offers one possible solution to the question now facing the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Three years ago, the U. of Texas at Austin took down a monument to Jefferson Davis and moved it to the campus’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. That offers one possible solution to the question now facing the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, U. of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is home to four vacant pedestals where statues of prominent Confederate leaders, including Jefferson Davis, once towered over the campus. Today the Davis statue is in a campus museum.

Following a 2015 shooting spree in which a white gunman killed nine African-American worshipers in a church in Charleston, S.C., the university removed the bronze statue of Davis, the Confederacy’s president. But as the eight-and-a-half-foot-tall statue was taken down, the university had a tough decision to make: Where should the controversial figure go?

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Three years ago, the U. of Texas at Austin took down a monument to Jefferson Davis and moved it to the campus’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. That offers one possible solution to the question now facing the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Three years ago, the U. of Texas at Austin took down a monument to Jefferson Davis and moved it to the campus’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. That offers one possible solution to the question now facing the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, U. of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is home to four vacant pedestals where statues of prominent Confederate leaders, including Jefferson Davis, once towered over the campus. Today the Davis statue is in a campus museum.

Following a 2015 shooting spree in which a white gunman killed nine African-American worshipers in a church in Charleston, S.C., the university removed the bronze statue of Davis, the Confederacy’s president. But as the eight-and-a-half-foot-tall statue was taken down, the university had a tough decision to make: Where should the controversial figure go?

The same question now faces the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where protesters last month tore down an equally large statue of a Confederate soldier.

At Austin, a task force of students, faculty, staff, and alumni determined the statue’s fate, based in part on a survey of more than 3,100 community members, according to a 2015 report. Ultimately the statue was kept on the campus as a permanent exhibit at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

“These statues … carry a deeply disturbing message that has no place on a modern campus,” said Ben Wright, associate director for communications at the Briscoe Center. “They are at the same time historically important artifacts that contain information about American history that would be lost if they were destroyed.”

Before protesters toppled it, the controversial statue of a Confederate soldier known as Silent Sam had stood on the campus of the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for more than a century.
The Rise and Fall of Silent Sam
Silent Sam, a statue of a Confederate soldier, dominated the main entrance of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for more than a century, despite decades of protests. But suddenly, in August 2018, the statue was yanked down by protesters. And in January 2019 the campus’s chancellor, Carol L. Folt, removed the statue’s pedestal and other remnants. Here’s how Silent Sam moved from dominance to disappearance.
  • UNC’s Silent Sam Settlement Sparked a Backlash. Now a Judge Has Overturned the Deal.
  • UNC’s Silent Sam Settlement Was Reached Quickly. The Blowback Might Last Longer.
  • UNC Will Give Silent Sam to a Confederate Group — Along With a $2.5-Million Trust

Meanwhile, at Chapel Hill, university officials said a decision about the future of its statue, known as Silent Sam, would be made by November 15. The statue is now in storage.

As UNC mulls over what to do with Silent Sam, UT-Austin’s quick relocation of the Davis statue could be a model for universities with Confederate monuments, said William Sturkey, an assistant professor of history at Chapel Hill. But it may be too late for UNC to make a similar move.

Sturkey praised Austin’s president, Gregory L. Fenves, for quickly condemning Confederate statues as symbols of white supremacy. UNC leaders have not responded with a similarly clear, timely stance, he said. “We’ve missed an opportunity.”

Every passing day makes it more difficult to pinpoint the right campus home for Silent Sam, Sturkey said. Chapel Hill’s Administrative Board of the Library already refused to house Silent Sam in any university libraries over concerns about safety and preserving an inclusive environment.

“It just seems like there’s no real good option left,” he said, “because we sort of punted and delayed and not taken action in a proactive manner.”

Educate, Not Commemorate

The Davis statue’s exhibit, “From Commemoration to Education,” was unveiled last year in tandem with renovations to the Briscoe Center’s first floor. The exhibit chronicles the statue’s life from its 1916 commissioning by George W. Littlefield, a Confederate veteran and the university’s largest original benefactor, to its removal, in 2015.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Briscoe Center also features the statue’s campus life with an interactive display that includes digitized documents. So far, the exhibit has received largely positive feedback from students and professors because the statue was moved from a commemorative space to an educational one, Wright said.

Instead it has become a learning tool for academic conversations. “The object itself has sort of developed this second life, where it now acts as a teaching moment,” he said.

Keya Patel, a senior at Austin studying art history, said the exhibit also prompts conversation about why the statue came down. As an art historian, however, she said the exhibit inadvertently glorifies the statue because of the inherent value conferred on objects in museums.

Patel said the exhibit was also missing key elements of campus history. The statue was removed during her freshman year, and she doesn’t think the exhibit properly captures how upset students were beforehand. “And we didn’t really feel like that was meaningfully addressed by the exhibit,” she said.

ADVERTISEMENT

The summer before her freshman year, Patel said, her class’s Facebook group was full of debate over the Davis statue. She wasn’t surprised to arrive to a contentious campus environment.

She witnessed the statue’s removal, in August 2015, and though it was a solemn day, she said students were mostly happy to see the bubble-wrapped statue finally come down. She remembers students singing, “Na, na, na, na; na, na, na, na; hey, hey, goodbye,” the common chant at sports events that mocks the losing side.

Students like Patel also criticize the exhibit’s exclusion of historical information about Jim Crow laws, race relations, and the “Lost Cause” movement, white nostalgia for the ante bellum era and Southern heroism in the CIvil War. “There’s much more emphasis on … the history of the statue as an object of art and less on why it had to be removed in the first place,” she said.

A Persistence of Memory

The lack of historical context is a common criticism from students, professors, and groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans alike, Wright said.

ADVERTISEMENT

While some students and professors take issue with the exhibit’s lack of focus on racism and slavery, the Sons of Confederate Veterans has criticized its lack of praise for Davis’s career, which also included stints as a U.S. senator from Mississippi and secretary of war.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans could not be reached for comment.

“The point we’ve made to both sides is that it’s not an exhibit about Davis. It’s not an exhibit about the ‘Lost Cause’ or about race,” Wright said. “It’s an exhibit about a Confederate statue that was conceived, designed, constructed, placed, argued and debated over, and then taken down.”

Criticism of the exhibit has weakened since its debut, Wright said. And students’ memories of the statue’s removal become more distant with each graduating class. This year’s underclassmen weren’t even on the campus when the statue was relocated.

Since then, UT-Austin has removed three other Confederate statues, prompted by the deadly 2017 white-nationalist demonstration in Charlottesville, Va. Those statues — Robert E. Lee, John Reagan, and Albert Sidney Johnston — were added to the Briscoe Center’s collection too, but there are no plans to display them publicly, Wright said. The university also removed statues of a former U.S. president, Woodrow Wilson, and a former Texas governor, James Stephen Hogg, as part of an overall redesign plan.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Now you talk to students, and they have just no idea that these statues were ever there,” he said. “They see the Davis statue as an object in an exhibit, not as anything else.”

Patel said she’s relieved to know the statues are gone. They made her feel unwelcome as a student of color, she said, and were a reminder of the university’s racist history.

While students’ memories of the statues may be distant, the campus’s empty, plastic-covered pedestals still serve as reminders of their presence.

“It’s a very strong visual symbol of what used to be there,” she said. “It still feels very recent. And wrong.”

Follow Cailin Crowe on Twitter at @cailincrowe, or email her at cailin.crowe@chronicle.com.

A version of this article appeared in the September 21, 2018, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Leadership & Governance Facilities
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Related Content

Confederate Statue Should Return to UNC Campus, Chancellor Says, but at a Different Location
As Support Grows for Ditching Confederate Statues, Colleges Weigh Their Options
In Explaining Confederate Symbols, Colleges Struggle to Summarize History
Removing Confederate Symbols Is a Step, but Changing a Campus Culture Can Take Years

More News

PPP 10 FINAL promo.jpg
Bouncing Back?
For Once, Public Confidence in Higher Ed Has Increased
University of California, Berkeley chancellor Dr. Rich Lyons, testifies at a Congressional hearing on antisemitism, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on July 15, 2025. It is the latest in a series of House hearings on antisemitism at the university level, one that critics claim is a convenient way for Republicans to punish universities they consider too liberal or progressive, thereby undermining responses to hate speech and hate crimes. (Photo by Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP)
Another Congressional Hearing
3 College Presidents Went to Congress. Here’s What They Talked About.
Tufts University student from Turkey, Rumeysa Ozturk, who was arrested by immigration agents while walking along a street in a Boston suburb, talks to reporters on arriving back in Boston, Saturday, May 10, 2025, a day after she was released from a Louisiana immigration detention center on the orders of a federal judge. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)
Law & Policy
Homeland Security Agents Detail Run-Up to High-Profile Arrests of Pro-Palestinian Scholars
Photo illustration of a donation jar turned on it's side, with coins spilling out.
Financial aid
The End of Unlimited Grad-School Loans Could Leave Some Colleges and Students in the Lurch

From The Review

Illustration of an ocean tide shaped like Donald Trump about to wash away sandcastles shaped like a college campus.
The Review | Essay
Why Universities Are So Powerless in Their Fight Against Trump
By Jason Owen-Smith
Photo-based illustration of a closeup of a pencil meshed with a circuit bosrd
The Review | Essay
How Are Students Really Using AI?
By Derek O'Connell
John T. Scopes as he stood before the judges stand and was sentenced, July 2025.
The Review | Essay
100 Years Ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial Discovered Academic Freedom
By John K. Wilson

Upcoming Events

07-31-Turbulent-Workday_assets v2_Plain.png
Keeping Your Institution Moving Forward in Turbulent Times
Ascendium_Housing_Plain.png
What It Really Takes to Serve Students’ Basic Needs: Housing
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin