Ole Miss seeks review of plan to move Confederate monument

The University of Mississippi is moving ahead with plans to transfer a Confederate soldier monument from its current campus location.

In an email Wednesday to students, faculty and staff, interim Chancellor Larry Sparks says the university submitted plans Tuesday to take down, move and reassemble the monument to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

The agency must review plans before Ole Miss can proceed. College Board trustees, who govern Mississippi’s eight public universities, ultimately must approve.

The university wants to move the monument from near its main administration building to outside a Confederate cemetery.

Ole Miss has struggled to distance itself from Confederate imagery, installing plaques with historical context about the monument and slaves who built some pre-Civil War buildings. Moving such monuments has sparked controversy across the South.