The Atlantic

Ole Miss’s Monument to White Supremacy

New evidence shows what the 30-foot-tall Confederate memorial was actually meant to commemorate.  
Source: Getty / The Atlantic

Updated at 12:22 p.m. ET on July 13, 2020.

Confederate ghosts still haunt the University of Mississippi, where I teach. The school’s nickname, Ole Miss, is a play on the term enslaved people used to refer to their master’s wife.  Its teams, “the Rebels,” play home games on a campus where the Confederate dead are buried, several buildings are named after former Confederates, and a Tiffany stained-glass window is dedicated to the “University Greys,” a Confederate company made up entirely of the school’s students.*

There used to be still more. In the past quarter century, UM has distanced itself from many Confederate symbols, banning fans from at football games, as its official mascot, prohibiting the band from and, after student protests, , which includes the Confederate battle emblem.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic4 min read
Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-war Fantasia
Once, in a windowless conference room, I got into an argument with a minor Japanese-government official about Hayao Miyazaki. This was in 2017, three years after the director had announced his latest retirement from filmmaking. His final project was
The Atlantic5 min read
The Strangest Job in the World
This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. The role of first lady couldn’t be stranger. You attain the position almost by accident, simply by virtue of being married to the president
The Atlantic2 min read
Preface
Illustrations by Miki Lowe For much of his career, the poet W. H. Auden was known for writing fiercely political work. He critiqued capitalism, warned of fascism, and documented hunger, protest, war. He was deeply influenced by Marxism. And he was hu

Related Books & Audiobooks