IHL delays decision on moving Confederate monument at Ole Miss

The plan to move a Confederate monument from its prominent spot on the University of Mississippi’s campus in Oxford has hit a snag.

In yesterday’s board meeting of the state Institutions of Higher Learning, trustees requested a full report on the state of the statue’s proposed new site and delayed a vote on the issue.

The Associated Student Body Senate at Ole Miss voted unanimously to move the statue to a Confederate cemetery on the campus in February 2019, and last month, the Mississippi Department of History and Archives approved the move. IHL approval is also required before the statue can be moved.

Students who support the move were disappointed the IHL delayed its decision.

“It definitely was a surprise to us,” a spokeswoman for the students told WAPT. “It was something that we did not see coming, but just speaking with the administrators we are going to work on that quickly, especially student leaders—whatever we can provide from the student perspective because we do want the monument to be moved in a timely manner.”

IHL board members have not indicated when another vote on the issue will be scheduled.

The Confederate statue was erected in 1906, and it served as a rallying point for people who rioted to oppose integrating the campus in 1962.

Over the past two decades, Ole Miss has worked to distance itself from the once-ubiquitous iconography of the Confederacy on its campus, from banning “Dixie” from the marching band repertoire to no longer flying the state flag, which features a Confederate battle emblem in its canton.