University of Mississippi approves plan to relocate campus Confederate monument

Another Confederate monument is close to being relocated, this time it’s in Mississippi.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History approved a plan to relocate a Confederate monument on the University of Mississippi’s campus Friday, according to a statement from university Chancellor Glenn F. Boyce.

The next step will be the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, which oversees the state’s public universities, deciding to approve the relocation plan or not, Boyce said.

The monument — dedicated in 1906 — stands at a prominent location on campus and portrays the figure of an unarmed Confederate infantryman, according to Confederate Monument Relocation Project documents from the school.

In September 1962, the statue served as a rallying point where a mob gathered to prevent the admission of the university’s first African American student, the school said in 2016 while discussing a plaque to provide historical context.

Ole Miss isn’t the first school to consider moving a monument off campus. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently removed its infamous Silent Sam monument after years of protests from students.