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VMI to remove statue of Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson from post
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VMI votes to remove Stonewall Jackson statue amid racism accusations by Black cadets
Breaking News
VMI to remove statue of Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson from post
By Grace Mamon Special to The Roanoke Times 1 hr ago
LEXINGTON — The Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors voted unanimously Thursday to move the statue of Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson from its central location on post. ... A new location was not announced, but both putting it in storage or moving the statue to the New Market battlefield were mentioned. ... The president of the board, John Boland, said it has been the “general consensus” that moving the statue is the right decision. ... He said his only concern was cost. ... “I would rather move the statue once rather than twice,” Boland said.
The vote comes just days after retired Army Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, for 17 years the superintendent of the state-supported military college, resigned under pressure from the administration of Gov. Ralph Northam and top Virginia Democratic legislators.
Jackson taught at VMI in Lexington, where he owned several enslaved people, before the Civil War. A victim of a friendly fire incident during the battle of Chancellorsville, the aggressive general became an icon of the "Lost Cause" movement decades after the South was defeated and slavery abolished by constitutional amendment.
Earlier this summer Black alumni of the institute called on the school to remove the statue and reconsider other trappings of the school's ties to the Confederacy, including the annual commemoration of the role of VMI cadets in fighting for the Confederacy in the Battle of New Market.
This breaking news item will be updated.
VMI to remove statue of Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson from post
By Grace Mamon Special to The Roanoke Times 1 hr ago
LEXINGTON — The Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors voted unanimously Thursday to move the statue of Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson from its central location on post. ... A new location was not announced, but both putting it in storage or moving the statue to the New Market battlefield were mentioned. ... The president of the board, John Boland, said it has been the “general consensus” that moving the statue is the right decision. ... He said his only concern was cost. ... “I would rather move the statue once rather than twice,” Boland said.
The vote comes just days after retired Army Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, for 17 years the superintendent of the state-supported military college, resigned under pressure from the administration of Gov. Ralph Northam and top Virginia Democratic legislators.
Jackson taught at VMI in Lexington, where he owned several enslaved people, before the Civil War. A victim of a friendly fire incident during the battle of Chancellorsville, the aggressive general became an icon of the "Lost Cause" movement decades after the South was defeated and slavery abolished by constitutional amendment.
Earlier this summer Black alumni of the institute called on the school to remove the statue and reconsider other trappings of the school's ties to the Confederacy, including the annual commemoration of the role of VMI cadets in fighting for the Confederacy in the Battle of New Market.
This breaking news item will be updated.
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