The University of South Carolina will not remove names with a history of racism and civil war from buildings

The president of the University of South Carolina stated that he would not ask the legislature to change the names of several campus buildings, which a special committee said were to celebrate racism and Confederate figures.

The special committee studied the names of buildings on the university campus for two years and found that they identified 11 racist names, such as health centers named after the late U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond. According to the draft committee report obtained by the National newspaper, his early record as a legislator shows a segregationist agenda.

Interim University President Harris Pastides said he plans to encourage school leaders to focus on naming new buildings so that the same committee can recommend outstanding black leaders as options.

“Many of our buildings are named in honor of people we don’t even consider today. Some reflect the legacy of racism and oppression that we hate and strongly reject,” Pastide wrote.

For more reports from the Associated Press, please read on.

Columbia, South Carolina-August 31: University of South Carolina offensive winger Vincent Murphy (C) during a demonstration against racial inequality and police brutality in Columbia, South Carolina on August 31, 2020 On campus with teammates and other student athletes. The team organized the event in response to Jacob Blake, who was shot several times at close range and was captured on video during an encounter with a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Police killed George Freud In May 2020, the names and statues of buildings that led to racists and allies throughout the South were removed.

None of this happened In South Carolina, because of a project called Inheritance law Passed in 2000, it requires two-thirds of the votes of the General Assembly to change the name of any building based on historical figures. In the past 21 years, lawmakers have not even voted on any requirements of the civil war or apartheid era.

The committee is expected to release its report on Friday. But Pastides sent a letter to the campus about the matter two days ago.

“State law currently prohibits us from changing these names, and we will comply with the law. However, we have a responsibility to tell a more complete history of these individuals and their actions in the context of our shared community values,” Pastides wrote.

The letter from the interim president seems to indicate that the university will not require lawmakers to change any names.

Before the 2021 legislative session begins, Clemson University hopes to remove the name of U.S. Senator “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman who led violent racist mobs to prevent black voting from the name of its administrative building. Orangeburg Want to remove the Confederate statue from outside the court. Even in the legislative committee, these requests were never accepted.

The 2000 Legacy Act was part of the compromise, removing the Confederate flag from the dome of the South Carolina State Capitol. In 2015, legislators removed the national flag from the Capitol as a whole Racist massacre Nine black believers were killed in Charleston Church.

After the Confederate flag was finally removed six years ago, Republican House Speaker Jay Lucas said that as long as he was in power, he would not accept requests to remove statues or change the name of buildings. Lucas kept his promise.

Many South Carolina lawmakers and officials are waiting for the state’s subsequent rulings The Supreme Court heard the argument In May, this was the first ever challenge to inheritance law.The widow of State Senator Clementa Pinckney was one of the people killed in the 2015 church massacre and was one of them Sue country.

The African-American leaders that the University of South Carolina hopes to recognize on the new building include Robert Anderson, James Solomon, and Henry Montis Tredwell. They are the first black students of the school and the American public. Senator Jim Cliburn and Ernest Finney, they were the first black students in the school. The first black chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

Pastides wrote in the letter that the new name “reflects our institutional values and a culture of diversity, fairness and tolerance.”

The other names that the Committee recommends to delete are segregationist or civil war figures: Robert Barnwell; Solomon Blatt; Thomas Cooper; Marion Grace; Wadehampton III; Robert Lee; August Staubdwin Longstreet; William Campbell Preston; J. Marion Sims; and James Henry Thornwell.