Yeah, including horror, sadness and even anger after all of this time. Also in AL:billy.pilgrim wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 5:02 pmWorth watching just to listen to the descendants voice their feelings....
University of Alabama honors first Black student next to former KKK leader. Many are outraged.
... The university’s board of trustees announced Thursday that a campus building called Graves Hall would be renamed to honor Lucy Foster. But beside her name, the name "Graves" will also remain, honoring former Alabama Gov. Bibb Graves, who was once a Ku Klux Klan officer....
The move to rename the building Lucy-Graves Hall has sparked outrage among many professors, students and alumni who argue placing Lucy Foster’s name beside a former KKK member taints her legacy.
“They're clearly trying to appease our students of color and students who believe in diversity while still holding onto that violent, racist legacy they're unwilling to relinquish,” said Sidney Sheppard, a 2021 UA graduate who was part of a years-long, student-led movement to rename the building after Lucy Foster. “They preach social justice and equity yet they still hold onto Graves's name so tightly.”
... Lucy Foster attended classes at UA’s Graves Hall for just three days in 1956 before she was expelled after protests and threats against her life. At one point, a mob surrounded Graves Hall in protest of her enrollment, and she spent much of her time at the university hiding in between classes, said Trustee Emeritus Judge John England Jr. at a meeting announcing the name change.
The university didn’t enroll another Black student until 1963, England said.
In 1989, Lucy Foster returned to the university as a master’s degree candidate in the College of Education, housed in Graves Hall. She graduated in 1992 and has since been recognized by an endowed scholarship and clock tower in her name....
“When she was denied this full honor and her name was put next to a Klansman's, it felt like the mob that threatened her won again,” she added.
When 2021 graduate Lauren Upton gave tours to prospective students, she’d take them down the underground hallway where Lucy Foster hid between classes.
“She was threatened and her safety was at risk, just for going to classes,” said Upton, who was part of the student movement to change the name. “We need to think about the fact that we're putting her name next to somebody who was part of an organization that enabled the behavior that made her scared for her life.”
... Graves, who served two terms as Alabama governor in the 1920s and '30s, was a Grand Cyclops, a chief officer at a KKK chapter. In his first year in office, Graves lobbied against anti-Klan laws and worked to undermine an investigation of Klan violence in Crenshaw County, the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported....
“I hope my students see this as a reminder that the fight isn't over,” she said. “We have made progress, but students have to continue to use their voice and see their power. And they also have to see that the institution is not always a willing ally, so we cannot stop agitating.”
I can't imagine a (Vrede too)-Westmoreland building.
Idk if the task force has made any recommendations in the 1 2/3 years since, or if any buildings have already been renamed. The petition does not have any updates since then:Gogue promises hard look at campus, building names
Auburn University has joined the growing list of schools moving to assess who has been memorialized on campus and who hasn’t.
Student Ashley Henton has started a petition on change.org to rename Wallace Hall two weeks ago. She has attracted more than 11,500 signatures so far to remove segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s name from the building....
“I’d like to publicly ask Auburn University to rename Wallace Hall,” Henton said in her petition. “There are countless influential people, especially people of color, that are related to Auburn University and the state of Alabama. As an alternative, I propose Franklin Hall to honor Harold Franklin, the first black student to be enrolled at Auburn University.”
The university provided a statement to the Opelika-Auburn News on the matter.
“The naming or renaming of buildings is a lengthy process that requires input from campus governance groups, approval by the Auburn board of trustees and review by a state agency,” the statement read. “Renaming Wallace Hall is one of several actions recently recommended that will be addressed by a task force soon to be formed by President Gogue.”
More than one
Wallace Hall is not the only building in the local conversation. Auburn University history professor Kate Craig has compiled a list of buildings named after Confederate officers, segregationists and white supremacists.
“There are many students, faculty, staff and alumni at Auburn University, and members of the Auburn/Opelika community, who are committed to fighting white supremacy and injustice locally, nationally and globally,” Craig said.
Boyd Hall, Brown Hall, Katie Broun Residency Hall, Comer Hall, Graves Amphitheater, Graves Hall, Langdon Hall, Tichenor Hall and even Samford Hall are on the list.
“William J. Samford was a Confederate soldier,” Craig explained. “His father, William F. Samford, was a slave holder at Sunny Slope and a leading Alabama secessionist, ‘the penman of secession.’ His activities helped make Auburn a leading pro-secession town in Alabama.” ...
Rename Wallace Hall
Full disclosure:
Idk if the U of MD, which I never attended, honors any racists, but it's possible. Non-secessionist MD is south of the Mason-Dixon Line, after all.
Idk if the U of MT honors any racists. Many former Confederates moved west after the war, so it's possible. More likely is that some anti-Indians are honored, but I never heard about any controversy in my 30 years in town.
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