The University of Texas at Austin, the United States, has removed four Confederate statues, saying such public memorials have become “symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.”
“Last week, the horrific displays of hatred at the University of Virginia and in Charlottesville shocked and saddened the nation,” Greg Fenves, the school’s president, said in a statement on Sunday.
“These events make it clear, now more than ever, that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism,” he added.
Fenves said statues of Confederate General Robert L. Lee, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston and Confederate Postmaster General John H. Reagan were also removed.
Lee commanded the pro-slavery Confederacy’s army in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865.
In 2015, the university removed a statue of Jefferson Davis, the former Confederate president, from its perch near the campus clock…