A new location was not announced, but two options mentioned were putting it in storage or moving the statue to the New Market battlefield, where 10 cadets died in the Civil War fighting for the Confederacy.

The president of the board, John “Bill” Boland, said that it has been the “general consensus” that moving the statue is the right decision.

His only concern was cost.

“I would rather move the statue once rather than twice,” Boland said.

The board also took several other actions regarding diversity and inclusion, including the establishment of a building and naming committee, and creation of a superintendent search committee, which will be led by board member Gene Scott.

Board members voted unanimously for each action, spending little time on discussion.

“While these changes we have adopted today are appropriate and good, I don’t think we have touched on our mission in an adverse way, and I don’t think we have negatively impacted our method of education,” Boland said.

The decision over the Jackson statue’s future comes just days after retired Army Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, for 17 years the superintendent of the nation’s oldest state-supported military college, resigned under pressure from the administration of Gov. Ralph Northam and top Virginia Democratic legislators.

Northam, a 1981 graduate, praised the board Thursday for its decision, having previously expressed his desire for the statue to come down.

“This is a very important first step for the future of VMI, and I’m grateful to the Board of Visitors for doing the right thing,” Northam said in a statement. “Those of us who love this school must continue to come together to make it better — not just for some, but for all.”

Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, who represents the Senate district that includes VMI, said he is confident the board will move the college forward in a positive direction.

“It’s not useful to second-guess decisions or the board decisions,” Deeds said. “It is a preeminent state-supported military institute in the country, and I want it to have a bright future. I don’t want any problems to tarnish that reputation.”

VMI has faced an onslaught of public criticism and scrutiny from state leaders since a Washington Post report two weeks ago detailed “relentless racism” experienced by Black cadets.

The story caught the nation’s attention, and Northam immediately launched an independent investigation into the school’s culture, policies and practices.

While the recent allegations surrounding VMI have eclipsed the presences of a single statue, it has remained a first step in Black alumni’s push for change.

In June, alumni called on the school to remove the statue and reconsider other trappings of the school’s ties to the Confederacy, including the annual commemoration of the role of VMI cadets in fighting for the Confederacy in the Battle of New Market.

Jackson taught at VMI in Lexington, where he owned six enslaved people, before the Civil War. Mortally wounded during the Battle of Chancellorsville, the aggressive general became an icon of the “Lost Cause” movement in the decades after the South was defeated and slavery abolished.

After the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VMI’s Board of Visitors considered removing the statue but decided to keep it standing.

The board reversed its position on Thursday, urged by Northam to “consign these relics to the dustbin of history,” as he and 10 co-signatories wrote last week.

Boland, who initially responded to Northam by simultaneously pledging cooperation with the investigation and denying that systemic racism exists at VMI, said Thursday that the college “like all aspects of society, must honestly address historical inequities and be intentional about creating a better future.”

The board also voted to establish a permanent diversity officer position, a diversity office and a diversity and inclusion committee.

The board also created diversity initiatives to include a focus on gender, directed adoption of a diversity hiring plan and established a building and naming committee.

The latter action came from previous recommendations of board members, Boland said, including Lt. Gen. Frances Wilson.

“My thought is that this committee would be a mix of faculty and staff, board of visitors, possibly even cadets, and without a doubt, our historian, that would make recommendations to the board in regard to existing statuary and monuments and building names,” Boland said.

Hundreds of members of the VMI community in July signed onto a letter authored by five alumni asking the military college’s leadership to create a commission to review elements connected to the Civil War, the Confederacy and slavery.

At the time, Peay wrote in a seven-page letter that the school didn’t plan to change building names or remove statues. But he did announce several other changes, such as altering of several traditions and emphasis of VMI’s second century of history.

By Thursday, deeper changes were afoot.

Staff writer Amy Friedenberger contributed to this report.