Carolina Hall, formerly known as Saunders Hall, is a building on the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

campus in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Carolina Hall was built in 1922 and named for

William L. Saunders William Laurence Saunders (1835–1891) was an American attorney, newspaper editor, historian, Ku Klux Klan chief organizer in North Carolina, and the North Carolina Secretary of State from 1879 until his death in 1891. Biography Saunders serve ...

, an alumnus and a colonel in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. The name was changed to "Carolina Hall" in 2015.

Foundation and Renaming

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill named the building after William L. Saunders in 1922, thirty years after his death. The university named the building Saunders Hall in order to commemorate William L. Saunders' service as a confederate colonel,

state secretary of state The secretary of state is an official in the state governments of 47 of the 50 states of the United States, as well as Puerto Rico and other U.S. possessions. In Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, this official is called the secretary of ...

, and as "Head of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

." Saunders Hall was built in the main quad of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus and remained there for 93 years. In 2014, university students asked trustees to rename the building due to Saunders' role as a

leader. Many asked to change the name to "Hurston Hall" to honor

Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on Hoodoo (spirituality), hoodoo. The most ...

. The Board of Trustees passed a resolution to rename the building, with 10 of the 13 trustees voting for the resolution. In May 2015, the university announced that the building would be renamed "Carolina Hall", and it was officially renamed on August 13, 2015. The Board of Trustees also formulated a plan to forbid any name changes to other buildings on campus for sixteen years.

Protests

University students protested the name "Saunders Hall" starting in 2001, when the Black Student Movement began protesting the building's name. The Real Silent Sam Coalition, an advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness about the racialized history of spaces on campus, launched a movement in 2015 to rename Saunders Hall, place a plaque on ''

Silent Sam The Confederate Monument, University of North Carolina, commonly known as ''Silent Sam'', is a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier by Canadian sculptor John A. Wilson, which once stood on McCorkle Place of the University of North Carolina ...

'' that contextualizes its history, and implement a historical tour of the racialized space on campus for first-year students. The 10–3 vote to make the changes reflected a divisions among trustees about how to address the university's racial history. Other buildings on campus named after people associated with white supremacy include the

Julian Shakespeare Carr Julian Shakespeare Carr (October 12, 1845 – April 29, 1924) was an American industrialist, philanthropist, and white supremacist. He is the namesake of the town of Carrboro, North Carolina. Early life Carr was the son of Chapel Hill merchan ...

Building,

Josephus Daniels Josephus Daniels (May 18, 1862 – January 15, 1948) was an American newspaper editor and publisher from the 1880s until his death, who controlled Raleigh's ''News & Observer'', at the time North Carolina's largest newspaper, for decades. A D ...

Student Stores, John Washington Graham Residence Hall, J.G. de Roulhac Hamilton Hall,

Cameron Morrison Cameron A. Morrison (October 5, 1869August 20, 1953) was an American politician and the 55th governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1921 to 1925. Early life and career He was born in 1869 in Richmond County, North Carolina. In 189 ...

Residence Hall,

John J. Parker John Johnston Parker (November 20, 1885 – March 17, 1958) was an American politician and United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was an unsuccessful nominee for associate justice of the Unite ...

Residence Hall,

Thomas Ruffin Thomas Ruffin (1787–1870) was an American jurist and justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1829 to 1852 and again from 1858 to 1859. He was chief justice of that Court from 1833 to 1852. Biography Thomas Ruffin was born on November ...

Residence Hall and Cornelia Phillips Spencer Hall.

References

External links

Official University list of landmarks at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
{{Authority control 1922 establishments in North Carolina Buildings and structures completed in 1922 Buildings and structures in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, North Carolina University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus

Foundation and Renaming

Protests

See also

References

External links