The Daily Tar Heel

Serving the students and the University community since 1893

Monday March 27th

Saunders Hall And Building Renaming



UNC students gather for opening ceremony of 'Hurston Hall'

By Acy Jackson Assistant University Editor Followed by the music of Nina Simone, student activists called for the end of white supremacy on UNC’s campus.  Students gathered on the steps of the currently named Carolina Hall to hold an opening ceremony for Hurston Hall, the name that activists have been pushing for since last year.  Over the summer, the Board of Trustees voted to change the name of the building from Saunders Hall to Carolina Hall along with a 16 year moratorium on renaming historic buildings, despite activists efforts calling for the building to be named after Zora Neale Hurston.  "'Carolina Hall' is a sugar-coating of Saunders Hall updated for the aesthetics of 21st-century white supremacy: color blindness and multicultural diversity," said the statement released by the Real Silent Sam Coalition after the decision to rename the building.  "This isn’t justice, it’s pageantry. We named this building after Zora Neale Hurston precisely because racist and sexist admissions policies excluded her and other Black women from UNC.”  Friday’s event began with senior June Beshea reading out the released statement.  “We will not honor William Saunders, an architect of white supremacy.

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