Daughters of the Confederacy Grit Teeth, Begrudgingly Accept Seven-Figure Vanderbilt Settlement

NASHVILLE, TN — The lawyer for the United Daughters of the Confederacy said the group would rather Vanderbilt kept the word "Confederate" on the pediment at Memorial Hall, but it has no other choice but to cash the $1.2 million settlement check.

Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it would remove "Confederate" from the name of the residence hall once and for all and to satisfy the terms of a 2005 court decision, it would pay the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which gave the money to build the dorm in 1933, the Consumer Price Index-adjusted value of the original $50,000 donation: $1.2 million.

In a statement, the Tennessee chapter of the UDC said it was "disappointed that an institution such as Vanderbilt University would attempt to whitewash, sanitize and rewrite American history."

The group's attorney, Doug Jones, told WPLN that the UDC hoped that Vanderbilt would keep the name on the building, but they will indeed cash the check from Vanderbilt, which was raised by anonymous donors and represents 24 times the annual budget of the state's UDC chapter.

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