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

LEXINGTON, VA — A committee at Virginia Military Institute recommended that the name of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson be removed from Jackson Memorial Hall on the grounds of the Lexington school. The committee also concluded that the level of veneration of Jackson has been “overstated” by VMI.

VMI’s Board of Visitors’ Commemorations and Memorials Naming and Review Committee met Friday to discuss a number of issues that support the concept of ensuring the grounds of VMI “present an inspiring and inclusive landscape and its memorials properly reflect VMI’s core values,” VMI Interim Superintendent Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins wrote in an email Friday to the VMI community.

“The committee has spent several months developing its charter and creating an inventory of iconography on post related to the Confederacy, as well as criteria by which to review these items,” said Wins, who was appointed interim superintendent last November.

VMI, founded in 1839, has been at the center of controversy in recent decades. The school fought efforts to allow women in the school, but finally relented in 1996 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the school could not exclude women while taking state money.

Most recently, VMI has come under scrutiny 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.

Retired U.S. Army General J.H. Binford Peay III submitted his resignation as superintendent of VMI soon after Northam announced the investigation.

Last month, 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 Friday’s meeting the committee focused on three areas for the Board of Visitors to consider: the Virginia Mourning Her Dead monument, the New Market Battle mural and tributes to Stonewall Jackson’s legacy.

The committee plans to consider new names to replace Jackson Memorial Hall, with the goal of making a recommendation to the Board of Visitors by 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,” Wins wrote in the email.

The committee also recommended that the embossed “Stonewall Jackson” inscription above Jackson Arch on the grounds of VMI should be removed. The committee recommended that the school conduct further discussion about the future name of the arch.

Along with addressing the tributes to Stonewall Jackson on the school's grounds, the committee focused on the Virginia Mourning Her Dead monument, a gift from its sculptor, Sir Moses Ezekiel, an 1866 graduate of VMI, as a memorial to the VMI cadets who died in the Battle of New Market in May 1864.

The committee recommended that the Virginia Mourning Her Dead monument should remain and its symbolism should be expanded to honor all former cadets who have died in wars and military conflicts from 1839 to present day, not just VMI cadets who died in the Battle of New Market.

As for the New Market Battle mural in Jackson Memorial Hall, the committee recommended that VMI should preserve the mural but possibly move it to a new location. The mural was painted by Benjamin West Clinedinst, a member of VMI’s class of 1880. It depicts the charge of the Corps of Cadets during the Battle of New Market.

The Board of Visitors will consider the recommendations at their next meeting, which is scheduled for April 30-May 1, Wins said.