Black students at Washington and Lee University have demanded that the board of trustees denounce one of the two namesakes of the Virginia school, Confederate general Robert E. Lee, or face acts of civil disobedience.
The students are calling for the school to apologize for Lee’s “racist and dishonorable conduct,” remove Confederate flags from the chapel, and ban Confederate reenactors from the campus on Lee-Jackson Day (a state holiday), according to the Washington Post. General Lee, who served as the school’s president after the Civil War, is buried on the school grounds beneath the campus chapel.
The tension stemmed from disappointment by black students over the school’s lack of diversity, the Post reports. University president Kenneth Ruscio responded to the students’ demands by saying he’s created a “special task force” to look into the school’s past and “to study the history of African Americans at the school.”
“While we are aware of some of that history, I believe we should have a thorough, candid examination,” he said.