Pelosi Calls on Paul Ryan to Immediately Remove 'Confederate Statues' from Capitol

The state's other representative is John Calhoun, a firebrand politician whose writings and speeches in favor of slavery and states' rights influenced the Confederacy long after his death in 1850.

But there's one prominent display of Confederate statuary that to an even greater extent represents unsuppressed rebel yells in the very heart of the Republic the Confederacy sought to destroy: the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. It replaced a statue of a former OH governor previous year. Cory Booker, believed to be mulling a possible run for president in 2020, said Wednesday he plans to introduce a bill to remove the statues from the Capitol building.

The statue called "Silent Sam" on UNC's campus, memorializing UNC students who fought and died for the Confederacy, was built in 1913. "And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?" he asked. But the House turned down their top choice, African-American educator Mary McLeod Bethune.

NAACP Austin Branch President Nelson Linder says he hopes the violence and hate seen in Charlottesville over the weekend can push lawmakers to act this time around.

Statues of Lee and other Confederate figures, such as Mississippi's Jefferson Davis and Georgia's Alexander Hamilton Stephens (the president and vice president of the Confederacy, respectively) remain in the Capitol. The neo-Confederate floodgates were open.

Several Texas lawmakers requested a similar review of Confederate markers following the 2015 shooting of nine black churchgoers in SC. Congress does still maintain authority to order the removal of statues through appropriate legislation, but that would now require Republican support which does not seem likely, given Ryan's position.

The statue of Edmund Kirby Smith is already set to be replaced, but lawmakers failed to agree last spring on whom to replace Smith with. "It's part of our history, but it's part of our history many people aren't proud of".

And some lists of Confederates in statuary hall include John C. Calhoun of SC, who actually died more than a decade before the Civil War broke out.

"Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught".

"We recognize these symbols for what they are and for the abhorrence they represent, still today", Espaillat said in a statement.

Under fire for defending racist activist groups, President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Thursday that he was "sad" to see United States' history torn apart by the removal of "our handsome statues and monuments", echoing a popular refrain of white supremacist groups that oppose the removal of Confederate monuments.