KAGS has covered the debate surrounding the statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross, or "Sully," as he's known on campus.
Earlier in the week, the statue was defaced, and on Saturday, dueling protests are planned for and against Sully’s presence on campus.
I spoke to students on both sides of the debate.
Most incoming Aggie freshmen learn about Lawrence Sullivan Ross, or “Sully.”
Tiffany Murrow, a current student of A&M said, "but going back into his history and seeing all the articles on Sully Ross, you can see how much people have tried to cover up certain parts of his past.”
She said aside from Ross' Confederate roots, her research led her to find out Lawrence Sullivan Ross took part in a massacre of Native Americans, killing women and children and taking a young Native American boy to work in his home, naming him Pease Ross.
Tiffany said Pease, “never really got over what happened at Pease river. He became a drunkard. He just fell into a depression it looks like.”
Others, like Matthew Mikulenkia, want people to understand and consider the time period he was in and his contributions to Prairie View A&M before judging and wanting Sully’s statue gone.
"He was a monumental figure. And at the time, if you were a person of power, and you did anything to help people that were not white that is a very progressive set,” said Mikulenkia.
"His ability to further the education of Black people and preserve the historical black college. That is a thing we should be celebrating”.
Tiffany understands history shows he’s done a lot for A&M, but she said, “we need to get the full of it to have a full view of who that individual was.”
And as for Matthew, he sees Sully as much more than his checkered past.
“I don’t see him as a vicious racist that’s saying Black people are not welcome, Hispanic people , Asian people are not welcome. I see him as if you go to A&M I hold you to an academic standard regardless of color, and I’m going to be there as a reminder.”
Both Matthew and Tiffany hope Saturday’s protests stay peaceful as planned and that there’ll be a healthy discussion between both sides.
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