UVA to remove Confederate plaques, ban open flames after white supremacist march

The University of Virginia will remove two plaques honoring Confederate soldiers and ban open flames on campus after white supremacists marched on the campus with torches last month.

The university’s Board of Visitors voted unanimously on both issues Friday after students demanded that officials take action after white supremacists gathered on the campus ahead of the violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., last month to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, The Washington Post reported.

{mosads}The two plaques honored students and alumni who died fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War and will be moved to another location.

The measures also designate the university’s Lawn, its largest and most prominent outdoor space, as a residential facility, meaning that open flames will be banned from the area.

The board took up the votes at the request of student groups that created the proposals. The university’s student council also approved the measures.

White supremacists had marched on the campus last month ahead of a white supremacist rally the next day, chanting “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us.”

This vote came one day after the university announced it would repay a pledge from the KKK to the institution in 1921 to a fund to help those injured during the rally.