Confederate Group Tries Again on Davis Statue

A statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis may have been removed from the south mall of the University of Texas at Austin, but the Sons of Confederate Veterans isn't giving up its fight to save it. 

On Friday afternoon, a lawyer for the southern heritage group said he filed a motion in state district court seeking a new judge's order to vacate a previous decision by state District Judge Karin Crump, who denied the group's request for an injunction blocking the statue's removal. 

"Ultimately, they need to put them right back where they were," said Kirk Lyons, the group's attorney. 

Lyons said he and his clients were undeterred by Crump's decision. "We will have a few more surprises for them when we come back," he said. "We are like The Joker — wait until they get a load of us."

The statue was removed Sunday after standing on campus for decades. Its presence was controversial, especially after the shooting of nine people in a black church in South Carolina earlier this year. After convening a task force, UT-Austin President Greg Fenves ordered it removed from its prominent location and moved to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. A statue of President Woodrow Wilson on the other side of the mall was also removed for the sake of symmetry. 

The Sons of Confederate Veterans vocally opposed the decision, saying the statues were artistically valuable and that removing them amounted to erasing history. 

"If they were wrongfully taken down, they need to be put back up," Lyons said. 

A UT-Austin spokesman declined to immediately comment. 

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.