Beyond Yale: These other university buildings have ties to slavery and white supremacy

Holly Epstein Ojalvo | USA TODAY

Yale University just announced that its Calhoun College would be renamed. In fall 2015, Yale students protested that the residential college was named after a former U.S. vice president, slave owner and vocal white supremacist John C. Calhoun.

Here are other universities in the U.S. that have buildings and spaces tied to slavery and white supremacy.

Rutgers University

Just this month, Rutgers renamed several campus spaces after former slaves -- including Sojourner Truth, who was owned by the family of Rutgers' first president -- and a prominent African American alumnus.

Georgetown University

In 2015, Georgetown students protested Mulledy and McSherry Halls, named for two past university presidents who had sold slaves to service Georgetown’s debt. The university president approved both proposed renamings, and later announced Georgetown would offer legacy admissions advantages to the descendants of the slaves who were sold to help fund the university.

University of Maryland

In 2015, the U of M’s board of regents voted to rename Byrd Stadium, named after segregationist Harry Clifton Byrd, an alumnus. It's now called Maryland Stadium.

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

In 2015, administrators renamed a hall named for Ku Klux Klan organizer William Saunders to Carolina Hall. They then froze any further building renamings for 16 years – leaving in placeAycock Residence, named for white supremacist and former state governor Charles Aycock.

Vanderbilt University

The name of Confederate Memorial Hall has been controversial for years, and a decision was finally made to simply refer to the building informally as only Memorial Hall but not undertake a formal, official name change. But in 2012, a new college hall was dedicated to Elizabeth Boddie Elliston, whose family owned slaves and who, according to the university website, “donated segments of her plantation for the formation of the Vanderbilt campus.”

Brown University

In 2006, a study commissioned by Brown’s first African American president, Ruth Simmons, found that the wealthy Brown family had owned slave ships and had ties to the Atlantic slave trade.

Winthop University and Clemson University

Students at both universities have called for buildings on both campuses named for Benjamin Tillman, a former senator from South Carolina who was a slave owner, to be rededicated.

University of Alabama

Braxton Bragg Comer, the namesake of another campus building, owned a large plantation that used slave labor, and Morgan Hall is named for a KKK leader. In 2016, a petition called for Morgan Hall to be renamed after Harper Lee. Another former KKK leader, Bibb Graves, has a building dedicated to him at University of Alabama, and buildings bear his name at several other universities in Alabama.

University of Mississippi

James Meredith made history as the first African American student at Ole Miss. But the campus still has Paul B. Johnson Commons, named after a politician who tried to keep Meredith from enrolling. He campaigned on his opposition to Meredith and won the governorship of the state in 1963. Ole Miss has two other buildings named for white supremacists -- Vardaman Hall and Lamar Hall -- plus two spaces named for politicians who opposed civil rights: Eastland Law Library and Jamie L. Whitten National Center for Physical Acoustics.

Contributing: Jerome Dineen, a USA TODAY College digital producer and George Washington University student.



This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.