“The eyes of the South are upon you. Go home and make as good citizens as you’ve made soldiers.” Robert E. Lee’s farewell address to the Army of Northern Virginia.
That’s what it’s all about to me. Parody or not, or the fact William Lamdin Prather graduates from Washington College while Lee was President there, no big deal. Whether people want to admit it or not, those veterans built this state, and built the University.
Gov. O.M. Roberts, former Colonel of 11th Texas. Signed the University into existence.
George W. Littlefield, Quartermaster of Terry’s Texas Rangers. established endowment for the University.
Dr. Ashbel Smith, Colonel of 2nd Texas. First President of UT School of Medicine (read his official report of the part played by 2nd Texas in the defense of Vicksburg, amazing). Not to mention, all the members of the State Legislature, the early professors, contributors, Board of Regents, etc. doctors, lawyers, educators, merchants, farmers, fathers. The list goes on and on.
Those guys built the school, and in many ways, helped the “an institution of the first class” ideal. So, erase their names from history, rename schools, take down their statues, call them racists, it doesn’t change the facts.
The bottom line: don’t sing it, if you don’t want to. But, don’t keep me from singing it.