University Of Oregon To Remove Name Of KKK Leader From Building

The school has made a decision to remove the name of a KKK leader Frederic Dunn from one of its dormitory buildings

The University of Oregon like several other universities including Yale and Georgetown has decided to take out the name of a KKK leader from its campus dormitory. The University looks to rename the dormitory after it has held the name of a popular racist fraction leader for so many years.

The President of the University Michael Schill announced the school’s decision on Thursday, following a unanimous board of trustees vote. They concluded that having a building named after Frederic Dunn – a classics professor by day and a racist group leader by night – wasn’t in line with the school’s ethos.

“It would be inconsistent with our values to have a building named after an exalted cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan,” Schill said.

Frederic Dunn, who died in 1937, was a professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Oregon in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as a leader of a KKK group in Eugene. The university’s Black Student Task Force asked the school to remove Dunn’s name from the dorm building last November.

Why in the hell was the dorm ever named after a prominent KKK leader?https://t.co/YxkncBuolk

— Sam White (@samwhiteout) September 11, 2016

Quinn Haaga, the student body president, beseeched the school to act quickly after the death of Black teen, Larnell Bruce last month. Bruce, 19, was killed as he was deliberately run over by a white supremacist in Gresham, Oregon on August 10.

“The state of Oregon has a very ugly racist history that was deeply ingrained in our policies and laws. Unfortunately, as this horrible tragedy illustrates, these sentiments are still very alive and well in many parts of the state,” Quinn Haaga told the board.

Following the board’s decision, the “Dunn Hall” will be renamed to “Cedar Hall.” The Black Student Task Force also pleaded with the school board to rename another campus dorm named after Mathew Deady, who was pro-slavery. Schill said the decision to rename “Deady Hall” is scheduled to be made later this fall and the school is also looking to invest $3 million in a Black Cultural Centre.

A bit of progress is better than none! University of Oregon to Rename Building Named for KKK Leader  https://t.co/uzJFsBSzf9 via @TheRoot

— Nia Brown (@TheBlackCameo) September 10, 2016

As the fight against racism goes on, the University of Oregon is making an effort to get rid of its racist past – building by building. It is a shame that a school dorm was named after a racist leader. What is more awful is that there are other Universities and schools bearing the same stigma, but aren’t doing anything about it. We demand other universities to follow suit, as we strive to take away the painful memories and build a racism-free community for our children.

Source: TheRoot