A statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, recently the target of vandalism and criticism that it is a symbol and celebration of racism, has been removed from the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, the Associated Press reports.

According to the Dallas Morning News, University President Greg Fenves said it would be moved from its place near the university clock tower to the Briscoe Center for American History.

“While every historical figure leaves a mixed legacy, I believe Jefferson Davis is in a separate category, and that it is not in the university’s best interest to continue commemorating him on our main mall,” Fenves said in a letter to students and faculty.

Last week, a judge ruled against the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who had sued to stop the university from removing the statue, the AP reports. But the Sons have vowed to keep fighting.

“What has happened was a cultural atrocity—this is a discretion [sic.] of art,” the Sons’ lawyer, Kirk Lyons, told the Morning News, going on to compare the statue’s removal to Pearl Harbor.

“Hiroshima is coming,” Lyons said. “Greg Fenves will rue the day.”

There are no plans to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Photo credit: AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.