HOUSTON, Texas — Hundreds of Texans, many of them armed, gathered in Houston’s Herman Park to protect a statue of former Texas President Sam Houston. Supporters of the statue responded to what they believed to be a threat from Antifa to remove it from the park like other historic monuments removed in recent months.

The rally, dubbed #StandWithSam drew hundreds of supporters to the park located near the Texas Medical Center and Rice University to gather around a statue of Sam Houston. Houston led the Texas revolutionary army against Mexico and served as president of the Republic of Texas, governor of the states of Texas and Tennessee, a member of Congress from both states, and a U.S. Senator from Texas. He served as governor of Texas when the State adopted resolutions of secession. The legislature removed him from office when he refused to accept the resolution.

An invitation to the rally posted on Facebook by “This is Texas,” stated, “Antifa has come out saying they will be bringing several large (communist) groups together to host a rally around the Museum District in Houston, Texas on June 10, 2017. This list includes Black Panther Party, Antifa & more. Their goal is to remove the Sam Houston statue.”

The invitation continues:

The details of the “THIS IS TEXAS” counter rally goes as follows. We will met at Memorial Hermann Park – 1000 hours. We invite all III%ers, Oath Keepers, Militias, Tea Partiers, Liberty Loving Texans, Liberty Loving Americans, Open Carry Organizations, and anyone who loves Texas & wants to protect our sovereign soil & history to join us. Open carry is welcomed & encouraged as well as any armor or ballistic vest. We have contacted Houston PD and gave them a heads up of our counter-protest. Emails have been sent to Gov. Abbott & Houston City Hall as well. Bring your flags and fly them high!

Across the country, and elsewhere in Texas, statues from Civil War era Confederate leaders have been removed from public viewing.

While attending the rally, Facebook user Steve Spence posted a video from Overpasses For America. In his post, he stated, “This is what we love about Texas. People know how to stand up and fight for their rights. Notice it is peaceful, so far. The leftists will move in dressed up as Klan members for FAKE news shots. Communist agitators may be bused in as well. We’ll see.”

Another Facebook video, posted by Sheryl Shaw shows the size and makeup of the crowd.

The Texans responded to what they believed to be a threat from a “Texas Antifa” group. Click2Houston reported the threat stating, “Texans agree the disgusting idols of America’s dark days of slavery must be removed to bring internal peace to our country.” Houston was a slave owner but opposed the expansion of slavery into new states and opposed secession from the Union.

Houston BLM activists denied having anything to do with the Texas Antifa page, the local NBC affiliate reported.

It turns out the Texas Antifa post was a hoax. The group’s Facebook page now now claims to be part of the group Anonymous. The group now claims:

The reason there were no Antifa at this event (yes we know about the 30 that were surrounded by mounted police and removed. They were not ours, due to the fact that this was Stroll campaign and we have no Antifa members). Even though it was a fake Antifa, we together accomplished several thing- Stiring up Texans, impassioning patriots, disturbing left-wing activist groups, and making Americans think long and hard about the important relevance of the historic monuments in their midst, and letting the world know that Austin has failed to protect Texas History by not renewing the law that does the protecting.

The group posted:

The rally concluded peacefully.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.