A group aiming to preserve Southern heritage has temporarily blocked the University of Texas (UT) - Austin from moving their statue of Jefferson Davis indoors.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans filed a restraining order Friday to delay the moving the statue through the weekend, at least, as a judge has yet to return a decision, The Associated Press reported.

UT announced on Thursday their plans to move the statue of Davis, the Confederacy's President during the Civil War, from the outdoor Main Mall to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. UT - Austin community members sought to have the Davis statue moved in June in the aftermath of the church shooting in Charleston, S.C.

Since then, multiple southern states have had to deal with their past affiliations with the Confederacy. Most notably, S.C. agreed to remove the Confederate Flag from their State Capitol building.

Rather than remove the Davis statue, UT said it would move it to an indoor location, a move the school is still confident in.

"In response to a request for a temporary restraining order that was filed in state district court Friday afternoon, the university has agreed to wait to move the statues until a court has a chance to review this matter next week," Gary Susswein, UT-Austin's director of media relations, said in a statement, according to The Houston Chronicle.

Kirk D. Lyons, an attorney representing the Sons of Confederate Veterans, told the AP, "It's the right thing to do to stand up to this nonsense" even if he knew there was no way he could win.

In UT's decision to move the Davis statue, Chancellor Gregory Fenves stated statues of James Stephen Hogg, Albert Sidney Johnston, John H. Reagan and Robert E. Lee will stay on display in the Main Mall.

Related