Fresno State has moved swiftly to remove a statue of the late union leader César Chávez after bombshell reports accusing him of sexual abuse.

“The monument has now been removed from our Peace Garden,” university president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said in a statement. “This action reflects the gravity of the information that has come to light. As a university grounded in principles of community, we have a responsibility to respond with moral clarity when faced with allegations of this nature.”

The university placed a black tarp over the statue Wednesday morning, following a statement from United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta. Huerta revealed that Chávez had raped her twice in the 1960s, resulting in two pregnancies.

Prior to that, the New York Times released a multi-year investigation of Chávez, reporting that he raped two underage girls.

The news shook the Central Valley, where the farmworker rights movement began. And Fresno State took steps to acknowledge this, moving to provide support resources and reexamine how they are honoring this history.

“The tragedy of this situation invites us to take a broader look at how we honor history across our campus, through monuments, namings, tributes, and how best to commemorate people and events of great significance,” Jiménez-Sandoval said.

New Group to Collaborate on Future Tributes

Fresno State will form a broader working group, including both campus and community voices, to help take a more deliberate approach to “honoring our shared history.” This group will collaborate on future tributes.

The university unveiled the statue in 1996, located among other civil rights leaders in the campus Peace Garden.

It is unclear if another monument will replace the spot formerly occupied by the Chávez statue.

California lawmakers are seeking to rename César Chávez day, March 31, to Farmworkers Day, showing a broader move to recognize the movement as a whole rather than one of the former leaders. The day was initially selected because it was Chávez’s birthday.