Texas has removed or renamed 31 places named in honor of Confederate figures in the last two years, according to a study released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
That is nearly one third of all of the Confederate places that have been renamed since a rebel flag waving man stormed into an African American church in Charleston South Carolina in 2015, shooting nine people and prompting a reexamination of the role of Confederate symbology in today's society.
That move accelerated last summer, when rebel flag waving 'White Nationalists' staged a march in Charlottesville Virginia which led to the death of a counter protester.
"These monuments represent the legacy of White Supremacy," the SPLC's Heidi Beirich told News Radio 1200 WOAI. "Most of them came up well after the end of the Civil War."
Four renamings are recognized by the SPLC in San Antonio. They include last summer's controversial removal of the Confederate Soldier Memorial in Travis Park, the renaming of Robert E. Lee High School in the North East ISD, the renaming of Stonewall Elementary School in the Harlandale ISD to Stonewall Flanders Elementary, and the removal of a plaque commemorating the 'Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway.'
Austin has removed the most Confederate related locations, with ten, including the statue of Jefferson Davis that was removed from the main mall at the University of Texas.
Its not surprising that Texas leads the way in removal of Confederate symbology.
Texas has always had a 'love-hate' relationship with its role in the Confederacy. In fact, much of the mythology of the cowboy was largely created in a concerted effort led by Gov. James Ferguson to paint Texas as a 'western' state rather than as a 'southern' state. This was at a time, in the second decade of the Twentieth Century, when Texas was booming following the Spindletop oil discovery, and while the old South was mired in poverty, due largely to its embracing of the 'Lost Cause' movement which largely glorified slavery.
The SPLC says Texas has a ways to go, including the fact that a monument remains inside the state Capitol building which boldly declares that the Civil War was not about an effort to retain slavery, which is in direct contradiction to the Texas declaration of secession passed in 1861, in which slavery was repeatedly praised.'