'Black Lives Matter' painted on UT Confederate memorial after Alton Sterling, Philando Castile shootings
"Black Lives Matter" was found spray-painted on a prominent monument at the University of Texas at Austin early Thursday, just hours after news broke of the second fatal shooting of a black man by police in the last two days.
The message was scrawled across the George Littlefield Fountain, a prominent memorial that anchors the school's South Mall. It features an inscription dedicating it "to the men and the women of the Confederacy who fought with valor and suffered with fortitude that states rights be maintained."
Local educator RocÃo Villalobos posted a picture of the spray-painted message on Instagram and Twitter around 9 a.m. By 10:45 a.m., UT Police Department spokeswoman Cindy Posey said, the paint had been mostly removed by university facilities staff.