Stonewall Jackson's Name To Be Removed From VMI's Memorial Hall

LEXINGTON, VA — The Virginia Military Institute's Board of Visitors voted to remove the name of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall" Jackson from Memorial Hall on the grounds of the Lexington school.

The board of visitors also voted to remove Jackson’s name from a quote inscribed on the Old Barracks at VMI. Because research has shown that Jackson did not originate the phrase, his name is being moved from underneath the quote, VMI said.

The quote, “You may be whatever you resolve to be,” is most often attributed to William Alcott and Rev. Joel Hawes, the board of visitors said Tuesday in an announcement.

The changes approved by the board of visitors at its April 30-March 1 meetings were among several recommendations submitted by the board’s Commemorations and Memorials Naming and Review Committee.

The committee, which is made up of board members, cadets, alumni, faculty and historians, has been working for several months to ensure that VMI “presents an inspiring and inclusive landscape for all members of the VMI community and the post’s memorials properly reflect VMI’s core values,” the board of visitors said.

VMI, founded in 1839, has been at the center of controversy after cadets alleged a system of racism at the school and for its veneration of the Confederacy. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a member of the VMI class of 1981, ordered an investigation into systemic racism at the school last October.

SEE ALSO: VMI Panel Calls For Removal Of Stonewall Jackson's Name From Hall

In March, an independent law firm released an interim report as part of the investigation of VMI that found racial slurs have been a "common experience" among cadets at VMI.

At its recent meeting, the VMI board of visitors also voted to remove the embossed name of Stonewall Jackson from the front of Old Barracks. The board directed the Commemorations and Memorials Naming and Review Committee to determine whether it would be appropriate to provide a formal new name for the archway. If a new name would be appropriate, the committee should provide the board with the new name at its next meeting scheduled for September.

Jackson, an 1846 graduate of West Point, was a teacher at VMI for 10 years prior to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.

"In considering the prominent locations of the Jackson tributes on post in the light of the committee's criteria document, which had been approved by the Board of Visitors for the review of those items, it was determined by the committee that certain venerations to the 'Stonewall' persona were overstated within the context of his contributions to VMI and should be resolved," VMI Interim Superintendent Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins wrote in an April 7 email to the VMI community.

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