University of Texas moving Jefferson Davis statue, other Confederate figures will stay

FILE - In this May 5, 2015 file photo, a statue of Jefferson Davis is seen on the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The president of the University of Texas has ordered removing the statue of Davis from the center of campus, but statues of other Confederate figures will stay. The Davis statue has been targeted by vandals and had come under increasing criticism. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this July 7, 2015 file photo, a young man walks near a statue of Jefferson Davis on the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The president of the University of Texas has ordered removing the statue of Davis from the center of campus, but statues of other Confederate figures will stay. The Davis statue has been targeted by vandals and had come under increasing criticism. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) (The Associated Press)

AUSTIN, Texas – The president of the University of Texas has ordered that a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis be removed from the center of campus, but that statues of other Confederate figures will stay.

The Davis statue has been targeted by vandals and had come under increasing criticism. State governments and businesses around the country have removed Confederate symbols following the mass shooting in June of black church members in Charleston, South Carolina.

President Greg Fenves announced Thursday that Davis will be moved to the school's Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

That was one option presented by a school task force this week. Statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, and Confederate Postmaster General John H. Reagan, will stay near the university's central clock tower.