Ole Miss leader agrees Confederate statue should be moved

Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The University of Mississippi’s interim leader, beset by calls from students and faculty to relocate a Confederate soldier monument, announced agreement Thursday that it should be moved from its current location on campus.

Interim Chancellor Larry Sparks issued a statement that he is in discussion with historic preservation officials on moving the monument elsewhere. Student, faculty and staff groups passed resolutions earlier this month asking Sparks to move the monument to a secluded Confederate cemetery on campus.

“Our campus constituents are in alignment, and we agree that the monument should be relocated to a more suitable location,” Sparks wrote in the emailed statement to students, faculty and staff.

Founded in 1848, Ole Miss has worked in fits and starts the past two decades to distance itself from Confederate imagery. Since 2016, Ole Miss has installed plaques to provide historical context about the Confederate monument and about slaves who built some pre-civil War campus buildings.

Critics who call the monument a symbol of slavery and white supremacy have kept up pressure for its relocation while others insist it remain standing as a key part of Southern history. Similar protests have played out around the country as other Confederate monuments have fallen elsewhere in recent years.

Sparks hadn’t announced until Thursday that he agreed with those calling for relocation of the monument.

College Board trustees, who govern