Ole Miss student government groups: Move Confederate statue

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) – University of Mississippi student government groups are calling for a Confederate soldier monument to be moved from a prominent spot on campus to a Confederate cemetery.

The Daily Mississippian reports that graduate and undergraduate student senates adopted resolutions this week asking administrators to move the statue, which has stood since 1906.

The groups say the statue undermines the university’s mission to be inclusive.

Ole Miss has struggled to distance itself from Confederate imagery, installing plaques to provide historical context about the monument and about slaves who built some campus buildings before the Civil War.

Pro-Confederate groups from outside the university rallied at the statue Feb. 23, and Ole Miss basketball players knelt during the National Anthem to protest their activities.

The cemetery is in a remote part of campus.

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