Yale urges discussion on renaming college honoring racist John C. Calhoun
By: Associated Press | August 30, 2015 5:31 PM
Yale University’s leaders on Saturday urged a campus conversation about whether to change the name of a residential college named for 19th century alumnus John C. Calhoun, a U.S. vice president and senator from South Carolina who was an ardent supporter of slavery.
Debate over the name began this summer with a petition circulated after nine black worshippers were slain in a Charleston, South Carolina, church. The petition said the Calhoun name, in place since the 1930s, represents ”an indifference to centuries of pain and suffering among the black population.”
President Peter Salovey and Dean Jonathan Holloway said in a letter to alumni that they weren’t taking a position on the question but urging a discussion in welcoming speeches to first-year students, and ”we encourage you to take part as well.”
”Any response should engage the entire community in a thoughtful, campus-wide conversation about the university’s history, the reasons why we remember or honor individuals, and whether historical narratives should be altered when they are disturbing,” the letter said ...
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/miscellaneous/yale-urges-discussion-on-renaming-college-honoring-racist-john-c-calhoun/127694/
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complicity in one of history's greatest tragedies', it's John C. Calhoun. 