TO THE EDITOR:
In pursuing my BA in history at UNC, several of my professors told me the same thing: we can only learn from history. To put it more bluntly, we can’t change it, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. Timothy Tyson encouraged us to “lean into” our historical discomfort regarding race relations and America’s sordid and violent past.http://www.altweeklies.com/aan/a-1970-race-murder-in-north-carolina-is-recalled/Story?oid=138897
No one is debating that William Saunders was a bad man — he was. Naming a building after him was, in hindsight, inappropriate. At the time, his involvement in the Ku Klux Klan was celebrated.
In 2015, as an educated community, the last thing we want is to be anchored to bigots and criminals as we work to better the world. But can Saunders and his ilk not also serve as a marker of change, as some tangible proof that we have, in fact, evolved from the venomous individuals we used to embrace?http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2015/02/activists-continue-the-fight-to-rename-saunders-hall
What is happening now is an attempt to make our history softer, so we’re more comfortable with it so that we have something rated G to tell our children when they ask who the building at Carolina is named after or something good to tell parents of prospective students.
I fully understand the decision to rename Saunders Hall, and I assume the other halls named after Klansmen will follow. Future generations of Carolina students, however, will not understand the bigger picture.
I fear that if we continue to erase our turbulent history, we’re destined to forget it, and you know what they say about history.
At least, that’s what my UNC history professors taught me.
Chris Rogers
