Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 9 october 2017
Debates, protests increase over universities’ slavery ties

By JONATHAN DREW “When I was an under-
Associated Press graduate student, these
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — names were benign to me
The national debate over but when I dug deeper, it
removing Confederate infuriated me that these
symbols from U.S. college names were on campus,”
campuses is spurring wider Hall-Perkins said by phone.
questions about university Responding to a reporter,
benefactors whose ties to Vanderbilt said it’s holding
slavery or white supremacy a spring conference on
flew under the radar in de- slavery’s impacts.
cades past. Adam Domby, assistant
Students and alumni are professor of history at Col-
no longer simply opposing lege of Charleston in South
overt Confederate memo- Carolina, said many South-
rials, but also lesser-known ern political figures from a
founders and donors with century ago espoused rac-
troubling racial legacies. ism.
And the discussions have “A lot of the leading politi-
intensified after deadly cal figures of the early 20th
white nationalist protests century are going to be
in August in Charlottesville, In this photo taken Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 University of North Carolina students gather during a tainted with white suprem-
Virginia. protest of a Confederate monument on campus in Chapel Hill, N.C. acy,” Domby said, adding
The problem is apparent at Associated Press that Carr unsuccessfully
the University of North Car- — Charles Aycock — from shroud over a statue of ry. University president Will ran for U.S. Senate in 1900
olina, where opposition to a dorm, citing his legacy of university founder Thomas Dudley urged “a critical on a white supremacist
a Confederate statue has black disenfranchisement. Jefferson, a slave owner analysis that goes beyond platform.
dredged up racist state- And UNC chose “Carolina they accused of racism. the caricatures of one-di- Scholars note that Carr
ments by a former trustee. Hall” to replace the name University president Teresa mensional heroes and vil- — not unlike Lee or Jeffer-
Tobacco magnate Julian of a former Ku Klux Klan Sullivan condemned the lains.” son — has a complicated
S. Carr, himself a Confed- leader before putting a protesters’ action while In Nashville, Tennessee, legacy. He also donated
erate veteran, gave the freeze on renaming other acknowledging Jefferson’s Vanderbilt University took to African-American in-
dedication speech in 1913 historic buildings for 16 faults: “In apparent con- final steps in 2016 to re- stitutions and served as
for the campus statue de- years. tradiction to his persuasive name Confederate Me- treasurer for the group that
picting an anonymous The issue resonates be- arguments for liberty and morial Hall, but a black started what became his-
rebel soldier. His remarks in- torically black North Caro-
cluded a reference to the lina Central University, said
“pleasing duty” of whip- university archivist Andre
ping a black woman in Vann.
public. “If I had to rationalize some
“He stood out here and of this, the lives and experi-
stood in front of a crowd ences of men and women
of people and bragged like Carr and others are re-
about how he drug a ‘ne- ally a mirror of the society
gro wench’ through the that they lived in,” Vann
streets for insulting a white said.
woman,” said Gabrielle The 2008 book “Upbuild-
Johnson, a student who ing Black Durham” noted
helped organize a sit-in black leaders struck an
against the statue nick- uneasy accommodation
named “Silent Sam.” ‘’I with Carr, one of Durham’s
don’t see how that em- wealthiest men, though
bodies anything other than well aware of his racial
hatred.” views.
UNC’s chancellor has said “Once questioned about
a state historic monument the elites’ amiable rela-
law prevents the univer- tionship with the ex-Con-
sity from removing “Silent federate, one black lead-
Sam.” But the fresh atten- In this photo taken Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 University of North Carolina student Gabrielle Johnson er responded ‘We prefer
is seen in front of a Confederate monument called “Silent Sam” on campus in Chapel Hill, N.C.
tion to Carr has spurred Associated Press to think of General Carr in
wider conversations about terms of his benefactions,
his legacy at UNC and yond the South. Yale Uni- human rights, however, he graduate subsequently not his politics,’” Williams
nearby Duke University, versity announced this was also a slave owner.” wrote a newspaper col- College history profes-
where part of campus was year it would rename a About 30 mostly Southern umn saying other names sor Louise Brown wrote in
built on land donated residential college honor- universities will gather this should come down. Lee the book. “Thus the Dur-
by Carr. Both schools are ing former Vice President October for a symposium Hall-Perkins decried one ham black elite opted to
home to a “Carr Building” John C. Calhoun, an ar- on higher education’s ties dorm named for school cite the ‘friendly feeling’
and have convened pan- dent supporter of slavery. to slavery. One of them, founder Holland McTyeire, between the races, well
els on how to handle con- Georgetown and Harvard Washington and Lee Uni- a Methodist bishop who aware that the assertion
troversial building names. have acknowledged or versity, is keeping Confed- once wrote an essay on was mostly not true.”
It’s not the first such di- apologized for slavery ties. erate Gen. the duties of Christian slave Protesters at UNC now
lemma for either school. In And in mid-September, Robert E. Lee in its name owners, including physical hope Carr’s own words will
2014, Duke removed the protesters at the University while pledging further punishment in “modera- persuade administrators of
name of a former governor of Virginia draped a black study of the school’s histo- tion.” the need for change.q