Students at the University of Alabama are calling for the school to rename a campus building named after a Confederate general and “grand dragon” of the Ku Klux Klan.
The building is named after U.S. Senator John Tyler Morgan, who secured federal funds to rebuild the university after it was destroyed by Union troops during the Civil War but also advocated for segregation and disenfranchisement of black people. A plaque inside the building states that he was recognized “for his high character and great qualities of head and heart.”
In one week, a student’s online petition to rename the building after author and University of Alabama alumna Harper Lee collected over 3,000 digital signatures.
The Washington Post reported that this controversy is part of a national debate about whether to change building names honoring segregationist leaders. The Crimson White, the university’s student newspaper, published an editorial supporting the name change, but some people oppose the change on the grounds that historical figures should be judged in the context of the times in which they lived.
In response to the petition, a spokesperson for the University of Alabama stated, “Through our strategic planning process that is underway, all points of view are being heard.”
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