OXFORD, Miss — A Confederate monument at the University of Mississippi will be moved to another part of Ole Miss’ campus, more than 100 years after it was first set up.
Thursday morning, the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning approved Ole Miss’ request to relocate the Confederate monument from the front of campus at the Circle on University Avenue to the less visible University Cemetery.
“The Board of Trustees approved the request from the Chancellor of the University of Mississippi,” said Dr. Alfred Rankins Jr., Commissioner of Higher Education. “He and his team devoted considerable time and attention to developing a thoughtful plan to relocate its Confederate Monument to the University Cemetery.”
A relocation decision was delayed earlier this year to look into where the Confederate monument could be moved.
The decision comes during ongoing demonstrations across the Mid-South and country about concerns of racial injustice and Confederate monuments and imagery.
"The Board reviewed the detailed plans for the new site, considered events on college campuses across the South involving Confederate monuments, and listened to the University's various constituency groups. The Board subsequently determined relocating the Confederate statue to be most appropriate for Ole Miss moving forward”, IHL Board President Ford Dye said.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy put up the 30-foot Confederate monument in 1906.
The monument’s relocation will be paid for by a little more than $1 million in private funds and the statue will be surrounded by trees, lighting and security cameras at the University Cemetery, where a new marker will also go up honoring Lafayette County, MS soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
Last year, nearly a dozen Ole Miss student, faculty and alumni groups voted in support of the Confederate monument’s relocation, arguing it didn’t represent modern day Mississippi.
Ole Miss Chancellor Glenn Boyce - who took the job last year - also expressed support in relocating the Confederate monument.
Thursday afternoon Chancellor Boyce issued a statement:
