Court to Vandy: Come Up with the Cash, or Leave Dorm's Name Alone
by Jim Brown
May 10, 2005
(AgapePress) - Vanderbilt University has been barred from stripping the word "Confederate" from the name of a dormitory built in honor of Confederate soldiers -- unless it is willing to pony up a good amount of cash.In 2002, Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee announced the Nashville school was planning to drop the word from the name of the building to create a more diverse campus environment. The school stated at that time that the word "Confederate" had overtones of slavery and was offensive to some current and prospective students and employees.
But in a unanimous decision, an appeals court in Tennessee has ruled that Vanderbilt must leave the name "Confederate Memorial Hall" intact or pay the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) the current value of the $50,000 given by the group when the dorm was built in 1935. According to one news report, that could amount to as much as $700,000.
Deanna Bryant, Tennessee Division president of the UDC, says the school claims it wants to promote more diversity on campus, but instead is trying to rewrite history.
"Apparently they don't want anything to do with the Confederacy on any part of their campus," she says, "but that is history. And our great, great grandmothers started this as a memorial to the Confederate soldiers -- and that is what it is. It is a memorial."
Removing the name, she contends, is simply an attempt at political correctness.
"The university can't, the chancellor of the university can't, the officials of the university can't, the United Daughters of the Confederacy can't -- no one can rewrite history," Bryant notes. "The War Between the States happened. It happened; that is history. That's just pure and simple -- you can't rewrite history."
Vanderbilt has not decided whether to appeal the ruling to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.© 2005 AgapePress all rights reserved.
