OXFORD | The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning approved the Confederate monument relocation on the Ole Miss campus Thursday, ending — other than the actual move — a lengthy pursuit to place the much-debated relic in its new permanent home at the Confederate cemetery on the edge of campus.
The monument has been in its current location since 1906 and should be relocated within the next month to what can’t be argued is a more suitable location.A clear majority celebrated the move, seemed to come without much drama until the renderings of the new location were released.
They show the monument in the center of a brick path on a manicured landscape surrounded by in-ground lighting with a bench and headstones in the cemetery in the distance. Currently, the graves are unmarked.
The illustration also shows wide-open spaces around the area instead of the tree-lined property as it currently exists.This set off a social media firestorm, calling the new area a “shrine” for the Confederacy and members of the Ole Miss community, including professors and alumni, criticized the university for glorifying the monument in its new location.
There are several different items to consider when evaluating the plan and the artist illustration or rendering. Let’s tackle them one at a time.
