While there are certainly plenty of "normal" people who are nostalgic for the Colonel, those who want to "save" him are a tiny minority of mouthbreathers. Do not support this.
I sat in a section of LSU fans at Death Valley one time and one of their fans told me how Ole Miss was his second-favorite SEC team because we "wave dat flag" (which we no longer wave) and then he said "if it was up to me, I wouldn't let n***ers play football." This Colonel Reb Foundation is now on the road trying to get support from exactly those kinds of rival fans.
I grew up with the Colonel and am able to separate his symbolizing Ole Miss from the slavery connotations, but the truth is the rest of the nation will never understand that nuance, so I am glad to see him go. I'm tired of Ole Miss's traditions carrying some flag of the shittier aspects of the Old South for mouthbreathers in other fanbases, too.
There are plenty of great things that Ole Miss and the rest of the SEC symbolize about the South. Slavery and Jim Crow are not among them, or shouldn't be.