Document Description: In May 2015, the Board of Trustees voted to remove William Saunders’ name from this building and to rename it Carolina Hall. Their refusal to acknowledge the proposal to rename the building after Zora Neale Hurston was explained by trustees by the fact that the students’ claim that she was the University’s first Black student was not “grounded in evidence and research.” The obsession with historical fact apparently only to be found through archival documents housed at the University belied a historical reality supported through secondary materials and widespread support from Black and white Chapel Hill citizens. In early June, the Saunders Hall sign was covered up by a stone sign which read “Carolina Hall.”
Organization: Real Silent Sam Coalition
Date: 6/1/2015
Document Type: Photograph
Campus Space: Saunders Hall
Citation: Adding Carolina Hall Sign to the Former Saunders Hall. Photo from “Changing the Name–Learning From the Past, Seeking A More Just Future,” The Carolina Hall Story. 2016.
Document Description: In May 2015, the Board of Trustees voted to remove William Saunders’ name from this building and to rename it Carolina Hall. Their refusal to acknowledge the proposal to rename the building after Zora Neale Hurston was explained by trustees by the fact that the students’ claim that she was the University’s first Black student was not “grounded in evidence and research.” The obsession with historical fact apparently only to be found through archival documents housed at the University belied a historical reality supported through secondary materials and widespread support from Black and white Chapel Hill citizens. In early June, the Saunders Hall sign was covered up by a stone sign which read “Carolina Hall.”
Organization: Real Silent Sam Coalition
Date: 6/1/2015
Document Type: Photograph
Campus Space: Saunders Hall
Citation: Adding Carolina Hall Sign to the Former Saunders Hall. Photo from “Changing the Name–Learning From the Past, Seeking A More Just Future,” The Carolina Hall Story. 2016.