The College of William & Mary will remove Confederate symbols from two university artifacts.
“It is time for a change,” president Taylor Reveley announced on Friday.
A plaque that was erected in 1914, recognizing some of the William & Mary students and faculty who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War will be removed from the historic Wren Building and moved to a collection of artifacts at the university library.
The Wren Building is the oldest college building in the United States, housing many similar plaques commemorating students and faculty who fought in the Revolutionary War, World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
The Confederate plaque will be replaced with one that provides a more complete history of the William & Mary people who fought for both sides of the Civil War, Reveley said.
Additionally, the Confederate flag and seal will be removed from the College Mace, a gift to the university from alumni, students and faculty in 1923. The mace is used during the school’s Opening Convocation, Charter Day and Commencement ceremonies.
“Though the new emblems have yet to be determined, they will reflect the College’s history, including the Civil War,” the president said.
The university explained the reason for the changes on its website.
“It has become clear that the Confederate battle flag has been turned irreparably into a symbol of racial hatred,” the site reads. “Thus it has no place in our ceremonial occasions or on a wall of our most iconic building.”
However, the president’s statement assured that the university is committed to understanding its part in history.
“We do not seek to put William & Mary’s part in the Civil War out of sight or mind,” he said. “The College barely survived the physical, financial and human carnage of that conflict. Nor do we seek to avoid examining and learning from William & Mary’s role in slavery, secession and segregation.
After South Carolina lawmakers decided to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds in the wake of the shooting in Charleston, many universities across the South have sought to remove or replace Confederate symbols. The latest example was the University of Texas at Austin, which recently removed a statue of Jefferson Davis from the main campus area.
