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Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Virginia Military Institute's Board of Visitors voted Thursday to move the Stonewall Jackson statue on the school's campus. The decision follows the resignation Monday of the college's superintendent, Ret. Gen. J.H. Bindford Peay III, after the Washington Post reported that Black cadets endure racism that includes lynching threats.
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That reporting prompted Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, to order an independent investigation into the 181-year-old school's culture. VMI received $19 million in state funds this fiscal year.
Peay, who said he resigned at the request of state leaders, had previously said VMI would not be removing any of its Confederate statues.
They include statutes of Jackson, as well as Francis J. Smith, who served in the Confederate army, and a monument to VMI cadets who fought at the Battle of New Market for the Confederacy.
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson enslaved six people and taught at the school before he helped lead the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
It is not clear where the statue will go.
In July the Pentagon issued a memo effectively banning display of the Confederate battle flag from U.S. military installations.
That memo lists flags authorized by the Defense Department for display "that promote unity and esprit de corps," and excludes the Confederate battle flag.
Other elements of the military have been explicit in banning the display of Confederate paraphernalia: in June Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday announced an upcoming order to prohibit the Confederate battle flag from all public spaces and work areas aboard Navy installations, ships, aircraft and submarines.
And in February Marine Corps commandant David Berger issued an order directing Marine Corps leadership to remove Confederate paraphernalia from bases, issuing more detailed guidance in June.
The flag has also been banned from U.S. military bases in Korea.
