Ole Miss expected to relocate Confederate monument that stands at university entrance: report

The University of Mississippi is expected to relocate the Confederate monument that is erected at its entrance after a Thursday vote, Mississippi Today reported Monday.

The board of trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning is expected to consider and back Ole Miss’s plan to move the Confederate statue from its prominent campus location, several sources close to board members told the news outlet. 

The 12-member board will virtually meet Thursday, and a meeting agenda will be released the day before, a Higher Learning spokeswoman confirmed to The Hill.

The expected vote comes as protests against racial inequality have broken out across the country over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Several demonstrations have targeted Confederate statues during protests, leading to several being toppled or defaced. 

Different representative bodies at the university — made up of undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff and administrators — have voted in 2019 to move the 30-foot statue of a Confederate soldier to an on-campus cemetery where hundreds of Confederate soldiers are buried.  

The plan to remove the statue built in 1906 was unanimously backed by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, but the Higher Learning board delayed the plan in January when board member Tommy Duff requested more information about the move.

All board members were appointed by former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R), who is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.