UNC Reimagined

Photograph by Michael Langston

Several buildings at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have namesakes with ties to white supremacy or slavery.

Due to successful petition by UNC alumni Michael Rashaad Galloway and continued efforts from countless others, the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees recently voted to lift the university’s 16 year moratorium on renaming campus buildings; a decision met with praise by some and condemnation from others. We asked Rashaad why he felt it was important to become involved and why he chose this stance.

What criteria are considered when suggesting whose name a building should have?

I believe that UNC should consider renaming these buildings after the enslaved peope who originally built the University. Although this may be a hard feat due to the fact that many of them were stripped of their names and languages by their slave owners. I think it should definitely be looked into. I also believe that UNC should rename the buildings after the people of color who were the first to integrate the university such as Zora Neale Hurston, Karen Parker, Henry Frye, Hortense McClinton, Willie Cooper, and Charlie Scott, just to name a few.

In order to rename buildings on campus, the UNC Board requires a request to be made in writing and be accompanied by scholarly historical evidence of “serious violations of federal or state law” or “repugnant behavior.” Additional factors include “especially noteworthy” contributions to the University by someone whose views were conventional at its time or the person’s significant moderation of offensive views and behavior.

What factors should an institution consider when branding their campus?

I think several factors should be taken into account when naming these institutional buildings, but I believe the most important two are first: making sure that the under-served communities at UNC have a strong say so in who these buildings are renamed in honor of and secondly, making sure that this is a re-contextualization process as opposed to completely erasing the troublesome past of UNC. I think that African Americans should be priority in the renaming process simply due to the fact that African slave labor is the reason our university stands in its current location. In reference to re-contextualization, I believe that a plaque should be placed on or around each building that not only states the stories of the individuals to be honored, but also tells the stories of the individuals who the buildings were previously named after and why they were changed. 

Are there other buildings that could use a name change?

At the moment UNC is currently changing the names of four (4) buildings that honor or support white supremacy or slavery. To put things into perspective, I have been working with two local activists by the name of Taryn Revoir and Shelby Voss to do research and gather historical information on all of our campus buildings. At the conclusion of our research, we found that in total there are over 40 buildings, monuments, and landscapes on our campus that are dedicated to individuals who either owned and profited off of enslaved people or actively advocated for white supremacy.

Those buildings, monuments, and landscapes are: Alderman Residence Hall, Avery Residence Hall, Aycock Residence Hall, Battle Hall, Bingham Hall, Bynum Hall, Caldwell Hall, Carr Building, Daniels Student Stores, Craige Residence Hall, Davie Hall, Gerrard Hall, Graham Residence Hall, Hamilton Hall, Hinton James Residence Hall, Joyner Residence Hall, Kenan Stadium, Lenoir Hall, Lewis Residence Hall, Mangum Residence Hall, Manly Residence Hall, Manning Hall, McIver Residence Hall, Mitchell Hall, Morrison Residence Hall, Murphey Hall, Parker Residence Hall, Person Hall, Pettigrew Hall, Phillips Hall, Phillips Annex, Polk Place, Ruffin Residence Hall, Spencer Residence Hall, Steele Hall, Swain Hall, Vance Hall, Venable Hall, Winston Residence Hall, and other similarly associated campus landmarks including Playmakers Theatre and the Jefferson Davis highway sign off of Franklin Street.

What significance does an innocuously named building like Carolina Hall have on campus?

Photograph by Michael Langston

Some students at Carolina Hall display the name “Hurston” in windows; their choice candidate for renaming.

Carolina Hall was the first building renamed by the Board of Trustees. This change occurred due to continuous student efforts through years of protest, demonstrations, and petitions. The original namesake, William Saunders, was a leader of the KKK in North Carolina as well as a Confederate colonel. Although a building was renamed Carolina Hall, the process by which the new name was selected should serve as representation to the Board on what not to do. Not only was the name change generic, but the Board refused to honor the wishes of students, faculty, and alumni, which was to name the building after famous African-American author and UNC attendee Zora Hurston. Hurston was a professor at North Carolina College for Negros (now North Carolina Central University) in Durham who attended classes in the 1940’s and later taught at UNC’s then segregated campus.

What message do you have to the Board of Trustees at UNC Chapel Hill?

First, I want to say thank you for making the conscious decision to be on the right side of history. Although the vote to rescind the moratorium was not unanimous, as it should have been, as a collective, you have made a huge step in making our university a better place. Second, I would like to challenge the Board to continue pushing our university forward by keeping the marginalized populations on campus at the forefront of your mind when you make decisions that affect the university as a whole.

While rescinding the moratorium was a huge step, there are several more issues that must be addressed such as: The continuous exclusion of students and alumni of color in university decision making, lack of resources for students of color and students in the LGBTQ+ community on campus, lack of urgency in matters concerning sexual assault on campus, the continuous exploitation of student-athletes, continued business with a food vendor which starves and exploits prisoners, renaming of all 40+ buildings, monuments, and landscapes on UNC’s campus which are dedicated to individuals who either owned and profited off of enslaved people or actively advocated for white supremacy, and several other items.

Instead of letting these issues remain the elephant in the room, it would serve us better to attack them head-on. This would not only show that our Chapel Hill community is continuing to head in the right direction, but also show that the Board as individuals care not only about alumni, students, and future applicants, but also the greater good of society at large. 

You successfully petitioned to lift a moratorium on renaming UNC buildings. Do you consider yourself an activist? 

I believe that anyone who is fighting for the greater good should consider themselves an activist. Although I initially wouldn’t have labeled myself as such, over the past few months I have come to embrace the change that activism can bring to local communities, states, and our nation as a whole. One of the initiatives I have been working with is "One Step at a Time", a social activism organization in Reidsville, NC which was started by my dear friend Kelsey Young. We are working within our community to increase the number of youth involved in local government and political action while also encouraging voter registration and census completion. We are also working with the local police to better relations between the department and the community. I am also a member of the Reidsville Branch of the NAACP, and I have worked with several non-profit companies to help increase financial and entrepreneurial literacy in minority communities.