Vanderbilt to Remove 'Confederate' from Memorial Hall

Long the subject of controversy on the West End campus, Vanderbilt University will drop the word "Confederate" from the name of a residence hall.

Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos, in an email to staff, students and alumni, announced the decision Monday.

"Ever since I joined the Vanderbilt community in 1987, the residence hall bearing the inscription Confederate Memorial Hall has been a symbol of exclusion, and a divisive contradiction of our hopes and dreams of being a truly great and inclusive university," he wrote. "It spoke to a past of racial segregation, slavery, and the terrible conflict over the unrealized high ideals of our nation and our university, and looms over a present that continues to struggle to end the tragic effects of racial segregation and strife. The name is discordant with our own work under the founding charge of Cornelius Vanderbilt, to find union and healing after the bloodshed of the Civil War. "

Zeppos says funding for removing the naming will come from anonymous sources. Presumably, this includes the physical removal of the pediment bearing the words "Confederate Memorial Hall," as well as a payment to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which donated $50,000 to the George Peabody School for Teachers to build the dorm in 1933. Vanderbilt took over Peabody in 1979.

Vanderbilt tried to change the name of the dorm in 2002 but was sued by the UDC, and an appeals court ruled in 2005 that the college could indeed change the name of the dorm — if it paid back the UDC the present-day equivalent of $50,000. Vanderbilt said it will pay the UDC $1.2 million via funds from those anonymous donors and stressed no institutional funds will be used.

The Vanderbilt Board of Trust authorized Zeppos to take action to officially rename the building earlier this summer. Vanderbilt has referred to the building as "Memorial Hall" in all official publications and maps for more than a decade, though the inscription has remained.

Zeppos also announced that the university will establish a major annual conference on race, reconciliation and reunion.

Image via Wikipedia user JBaker08, used under Creative Commons