 In 1998, a few activists on the Texas A & M campus objected to his statue on the basis that Ross might have been friends with some members of the Ku Klux Klan. As stated above, after an exhaustive search, no documented evidence has ever been found to show that Ross had any association with the Klan. The previously mentioned activists wanted to create a "diversity plaza", with a statue of African-American politician Matthew Gaines. The project was abandoned in 1999 in the wake of the Aggie Bonfire tragedy.
