Memorial Hall | |
---|---|
Confederate Memorial Hall | |
General information | |
Town or city | Nashville |
Country | United States |
Completed | 1935 |
Owner | Vanderbilt University |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | 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 neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, and the promotion of the pseudohistorical Lost Cause ideology and corresponding white supremacy.
Vanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowment in the hopes that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the American Civil War. Vanderbilt is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and has been the conference's only private school since 1966.
Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) is a preparatory day school for boys in grades 7 through 12 in Nashville, Tennessee. The school is located in the Whitland Area Neighborhood.
James Davis Porter was an American attorney, politician, educator, and officer of the Confederate Army. He served as the 20th 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.
Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development is the education school of Vanderbilt University, a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1875, Peabody had a long history as an independent institution before merging with Vanderbilt University in 1979. The school is located on the Peabody Campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The academic and administrative buildings surround the Peabody Esplanade and are southeast of Vanderbilt's main campus.
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, United States, 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.
University of Nashville was a private university in Nashville, Tennessee. It was established in 1806 as Cumberland College. It existed as a distinct entity until 1909; operating 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.
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
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 Frank W. Mayborn Building houses the Human and Organizational Development program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sumner Archibald Cunningham was an American Confederate soldier and journalist. He was the editor of a short lived Confederate magazine called "Our Day" (1883-1884) published in New York. In 1893 he established the Confederate Veteran, a bimonthly magazine about veterans of the Confederate States Army until his death in 1913. He was a critic of Reconstruction, "scalawags", "carpetbaggers", and "Negro" legislators.
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.
There are more than 160 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures that have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five of which have been since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.
The Tennessee Confederate Women's Monument, also known as the Tennessee Monument to the Women of the Confederacy or the Monument to Southern Women in War Times, is a bronze statue on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
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.
Edwin Augustus Keeble was an American architect who was trained in the Beaux-Arts architecture tradition. He designed many buildings in Tennessee, including homes, churches, military installations, skyscrapers, hospitals and school buildings, some of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He is best known for Nashville's landmark Life and Casualty Tower built in 1957 which was the tallest commercial structure in the Southeastern United States at that time. It reflected an architectural turn to modernism and was one of the first buildings emphasizing energy efficiency.
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.