Memorial Hall | |
---|---|
Confederate Memorial Hall | |
Memorial Hall in 2007 (then known as Confederate Memorial Hall) | |
General information | |
Town or city | Nashville |
Country | United States |
Completed | 1935 |
Owner | Vanderbilt University |
Design and construction | |
Architect | Henry C. Hibbs |
Memorial Hall (formerly known as Confederate Memorial Hall) is a historic building on the Peabody College campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. It was built in 1935 as a dormitory hall for female descendants of Confederate States Army veterans. Its former name resulted in multiple lawsuits and student unrest. In August 2016, Vanderbilt announced it would reimburse the United Daughters of the Confederacy for their financial contribution and remove the word Confederate from the building.
The project was initiated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) as early as the mid-1890s and was supported by Peabody College president James D. Porter, a Confederate veteran and former Tennessee governor, in 1902. [1] Edith D. Pope, the second editor of the Confederate Veteran and a leading member of the Nashville No. 1 chapter of the UDC, played a key role in its construction. In addition, Pope and other members of the UDC made sure the college would offer a course on Southern history. [1]
The construction of Confederate Memorial Hall was supported by a $50,000 donation from the UDC in 1933. [2] [3] The total cost of construction was $140,000. [4] The building was completed in 1935. [5] It was used as a residential building by female descendants of Confederate veterans who were selected by the UDC to live free of charge while they studied education. [5] [2]
The building became part of Vanderbilt University campus in 1979 when the university acquired Peabody College. [3] By 1988, students were holding protests on campus, arguing the building's name was offensive to black students. [5] As a result, the university added a memorial plaque near the building to contextualize the origin of the name. [5] [3]
When Gordon Gee became Chancellor in 2002, he tried to change the name of the building. [2] However, the United Daughters of the Confederacy sued the university in the Davidson County Chancery Court. [2] [6] The case went to the Tennessee Supreme Court, and Judge William C. Koch, Jr. sided with the UDC. [2] By 2005, Judge William B. Cain of the Tennessee Court of Appeals concluded that the word Confederate was not about slavery, but about the fallen soldiers of the Confederate States Army, who defended their land against Northern invaders. [3] [7] When he suggested Vanderbilt University would have to repay the UDC for their $50,000 donation (adjusted to inflation), the university dropped the lawsuit. [3] However, the university used the name "Memorial Hall" in their publications. [3]
In November 2015, students asked Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos to change the name on the building, arguing that "Vanderbilt refuses to pay $1 million to the Daughters of the Confederacy to divorce this university from its 'racist' past but raised $10 million to renovate campus baseball facilities". [8]
On August 15, 2016, the university announced it would remove the word Confederate from the building after receiving an anonymous donation of $1.2 million to repay the United Daughters of the Confederacy. [9] [10] The UDC "reluctantly" accepted the donation. [11] Meanwhile, the university hid the word Confederate with a "temporary covering". [11]
Alumnus Clay Travis, a Fox Sports journalist, criticized his alma mater's decision to remove the word Confederate, comparing them to "Middle Eastern terrorists". [12] In response, Jack Daniel's canceled a $3,000 promotion deal it had with Travis. [12]
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American hereditary association of Southern women established in 1894 in Nashville, Tennessee. The organization's activities include the commemoration of Confederate Civil War soldiers and the funding of monuments to them. Many historians have described the organization's portrayal of the Confederate States of America (CSA) and the Civil War as a promotion of the Lost Cause and of white supremacy, and have asserted that the elevation of the Confederate tradition has been led by the UDC. In the early 1900s the organization often applauded the Ku Klux Klan and funded the building of a monument to the Klan in 1926. The UDC has been labeled as neo-Confederate by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Fisk University is a private historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee. The university was founded in 1866 and its 40-acre (160,000 m2) campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Vanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowment; Vanderbilt hoped that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the Civil War.
Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) is a preparatory day school for boys in grades 7 through 12 in Nashville, Tennessee.
James Davis Porter was an American attorney, politician, educator, and officer of the Confederate Army. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1875 to 1879. He was subsequently appointed as Assistant Secretary of State during President Grover Cleveland's first administration, and Minister to Chile in Cleveland's second administration.
Mount Olivet Cemetery is a 206-acre (83 ha) cemetery located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is located approximately two miles East of downtown Nashville, and adjacent to the Catholic Calvary Cemetery. It is open to the public during daylight hours.
Centennial Park is a large urban park located approximately two miles west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, across West End Avenue from the campus of Vanderbilt University. The 21st-century headquarters campus of the Hospital Corporation of America was developed adjacent to the park.
The University of Nashville was an educational institution that existed as a distinct entity from 1826 until 1909. During its history, it operated at various times a medical school, a four-year military college, a literary arts college, and a boys preparatory school. Educational institutions in operation today that can trace their roots to the University of Nashville include Montgomery Bell Academy, an all-male preparatory school; the Vanderbilt University Medical School; Peabody College at Vanderbilt University; and the University School of Nashville, a co-educational preparatory school.
The Western Military Institute was a preparatory school and college located first in Kentucky, then in Tennessee. It was founded in 1847 in Georgetown, Kentucky, and it later moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where it merged with Montgomery Bell Academy in 1867. The former campus is now Vanderbilt University's Peabody College. Alumni include prominent Confederate veterans and Southern politicians.
Henry C. Hibbs (1882–1949) was an American architect. He designed many buildings on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee as well as Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. He also designed the libraries of Fisk University in Nashville and the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was the recipient of several awards for his architectural work.
The Home Economics Building on the campus of Vanderbilt University is a historic structure in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Frank W. Mayborn Building houses the Human and Organizational Development program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sumner Archibald Cunningham was an American Confederate veteran and editor. He was the founder and editor of The Confederate Veteran, a bimonthly magazine about veterans of the Confederate States Army.
Charles Madison Sarratt (1888–1978) was an American academic and administrator. He was the co-author of a textbook on mathematics. He was the Chair of the Department of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University from 1924 to 1946, Dean of Students from 1939 to 1945, Vice-Chancellor from 1946 to 1958, and Dean of Alumni from 1958 to 1978.
Cornelius Hankins (1863-1946) was an American painter. He painted agrarian landscapes of Tennessee and portraits of Confederate veterans and politicians.
Elizabeth Lee Bloomstein was an American history professor, university librarian, clubwoman, and suffragist based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials is an ongoing process in the United States since the 1960s. Many municipalities in the United States have removed monuments and memorials on public property dedicated to the Confederate States of America (CSA), and some, such as Silent Sam in North Carolina, have been torn down by protestors. The momentum to remove Confederate memorials increased dramatically following the high-profile incidents including the Charleston church shooting (2015), the Unite the Right rally (2017), and the killing of George Floyd (2020). The removals have been driven by the belief that the monuments glorify white supremacy, memorialize an unrecognized, treasonous government whose founding principle was the perpetuation of slavery, and that the presence of these Confederate memorials over a hundred years after the subjugation of the Confederacy continues to disenfranchise and alienate African Americans.
Edith D. Pope was an American editor. She was the second editor of the Confederate Veteran from 1914 to 1932, and the president of the Nashville No. 1 chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy from 1927 to 1930. She played a critical role in the promotion of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
Burlington, also known as the Elliston-Farrell House, was a historic mansion on a plantation in mid-town Nashville, Tennessee, US. It stood on modern-day Elliston Place.
Anonymous donors recently gave the university the $1.2 million needed for that purpose; the Vanderbilt Board of Trust authorized the move this summer.
Vanderbilt will return $1.2 million to the Tennessee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the present value of the $50,000 the group donated to the school in 1933 for the construction of the dorm. [...] The $1.2 million payment will come from anonymous donors who gave specifically for the removal of the inscription, the school said.