Statues honoring three Confederate leaders, including Gen. Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, were vandalized on Monday night on the campus of the University of Texas.
The memorials were spray-painted with slogans such as “Black Lives Matter” after a vigil on Monday night commemorating the massacre last week of nine black men and women in Charleston, South Carolina, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
The student government at the university on Saturday circulated a petition to remove the Davis statue, reportedly garnering over 2,200 signatures by Tuesday.
Along with Davis and Lee, a statue of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was also defaced. Campus police will be investigating the vandalism, according to the paper.
“We don’t condone the use of graffiti to get this message across,” student government Vice President Rohit Mandalapu told the Express-News. “At the same time it does show students care about this issue.”
