The trend at
university’s today is for those being taught, the students, to review
the university’s past and especially buildings named for famous North
Carolinians and demand them changed if they are not pleased with all the
notable contributions of those honored. Perhaps current Duke President
Brodhead will decline the honor of having a hall named for him as
future student activists will find issues with his beliefs and
character. Bernhard Thuersam
From “Duke Magazine,” special issue 2014, volume 100, No. 3:
“Name Change for East Campus Hall
A former governor’s legacy prompted lobbying from student groups.
Aycock
Hall isn’t Aycock Hall anymore. In June, the East Campus hall became
East Residence Hall – again. That’s the 113-year-old residence hall’s
original name. Trinity College named the building for former North
Carolina Governor Charles B. Aycock in 1912. More recently,
representatives of Duke Student Government and the Black Student
Alliance approached the administration, and eventually presented a
formal proposal lobbying for a name change based on the legacy of
Governor Aycock. There was a review of Aycock’s leadership that found
“while Governor Aycock made notable contributions to public education in
North Carolina, his legacy is inextricably associated with the
disenfranchisement of black voters,” wrote President Richard H. Brodhead
in a letter to student leaders announcing the change.
The
board of trustees approved the change, which was effective
immediately. A display will be placed in the lobby explaining the
history of the hall’s name.”
Notes on Governor Aycock:
The
base reason why Aycock and North Carolina Democrats pushed for
disenfranchisement of the Negro was their belief that the black man was
selling his vote, fraudulently voting in elections, and supporting alien
carpetbag candidates who helped bring financial ruin to the State.
Aycock’s view was to take the vote away from the black man for a
period, educate him in the moral and ethical principles and
responsibilities of republican government, then return the franchise to
him to be used properly.
In
his January 1901 inaugural address Aycock said: “If we fail to
administer equal and exact justice to the Negro who we deprive of
suffrage, we shall in the fullness of time lose power ourselves, for we
know that God, who is love, trusts no people with authority for a
purpose of enabling them to do injustice to the weak.” In 1903 he said:
“But I would not have the white people forget their duty to the Negro.
We own an obligation to “the man in black” . . . We owe him gratitude;
above all we owe him justice.
At
the 1901 Negro State Fair Aycock said: “In glancing through the
criminal statistics of the State, I find that while your race
constitutes only one-third of the population of North Carolina, you
commit one-half of the crimes. Before you can ever take your proper
place in the world, you must learn first obedience to law. Inside of
your own race you can grow as large and broad and high as God permits,
with the aid, sympathy, and the encouragement of your white neighbors.”
Aycock
said in April 1901: “ . . . If the Negro is ever educated it will be by
the aid of Southern white men. The North cannot do it. Philanthropists
in the North think they can educate the Negro without the help of
Southern whites, but they are mistaken . . . “
I grew up near a town formerly called Swift Creek, NC until the name was change in honor of Zebulon Vance. I wonder how long before the collective "they" force the town of Vanceboro to change it's name back to Swift Creek. CH
ReplyDeleteReally.
DeleteWhites have everything to be proud of - our race indeed represents the March Of The Titans. Don’t let them take that from us. We do not want you, we do not need you; you
ReplyDeletemust go. For a race who did not even have a language, this is ridiculous.
Political correctness will be the death of us all.
Delete