To the University of Mississippi Community:
As you know, Chancellor Vitter has today posted an open letter to the university community acknowledging and endorsing our request to consider additional input to the contextualization language we recommended for a plaque at the Confederate statue on Lyceum Circle.
Comments and suggestions regarding the message or ideas expressed in the plaque should be submitted by email to us at context@OleMiss.edu by April 8.
We will consider all the input we receive and then recommend to Chancellor Vitter either no change to the current language on the plaque or a specific revision based on the additional input.
Respectfully,
Dr. Donald Cole
Dr. Andrew Mullins
Dr. Charles Ross
Dr. David Sansing
Language on the plaque currently reads as follows:
“As Confederate veterans were passing from the scene in increasing numbers, memorial associations built monuments in their memory all across the South. This statue was dedicated by citizens of Oxford and Lafayette County in 1906. On the evening of September 30, 1962, the statue was a rallying point where a rebellious mob gathered to prevent the admission of the University’s first African American student. It was also at this statue that a local minister implored the mob to disperse and allow James Meredith to exercise his rights as an American citizen. On the morning after that long night, Meredith was admitted to the University and graduated in August 1963.
“This historic structure is a reminder of the University’s past and of its current and ongoing commitment to open its hallowed halls to all who seek truth and knowledge and wisdom.”