Duke must look at past, present, future before deciding to rename Carr building
Students and supporters rallied on the Duke University campus Wednesday, pushing the administration to change the name of the Carr building.
The Carr building, which is home to the history department, is named for Julian Carr, who fought for the Confederacy and gave a fiery speech at the 1913 Silent Sam statue dedication.
Carr made his money in the tobacco industry, and, at the Silent Sam dedication, he bragged about "horse-whipping a black woman."
Last month, faculty members in the history department filed a formal request to change the name of the Carr building to the Gavins building in honor of Raymond Gavins, the first African-American in the Duke history department.
"Once you know what happened, and know the fuller history, we have an obligation to take that into account," Professor Gunther Peck said. "Ray was an incredibly humble man, he never sought the limelight. He would be proud, not for himself but for that change."
Carr, who died in 1924, was a veteran, philanthropist and white supremacist. He contributed to the University of North Carolina, what is now the Town of Carrboro and to Duke.
Carr actually gifted the land on which protesters were gathering Wednesday evening. He donated 62 acres to what was, at the time, Trinity College, making it possible for the school to relocate from Trinity, North Carolina, to Durham. In 1892, Trinity College changed its name to Duke University.
"Money never forgets where it came from," said Duke Professor Wahneema Lubiano. "A wealthy donor does not simply make a gift of money, of land, of other resources that somehow are timeless, are free of everything that accompanies the gift."
Duke has a process for how to deal with changing building names. The Carr renaming passed the first hurdle when a review by senior leadership at Duke found it to be a legitimate request.
Now, the request will go through the process, ultimately reaching the board of trustees, who will make a final decision. The process could take several months.
“It should not be easy, or quick, or simple to make these kinds of decisions because they are very complicated and they involve looking at the past, looking at the present and looking at the future,” said Mike Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs at Duke. “We’re confident, the university is confident, that it has such a process in place and it is being worked through right now.”
Some students, however, believe the process to change the name of a building on campus is problematic.
"It doesn't really provide a lot of opportunity for student input, which is part of the reason why we need to have student voices here, to be able to speak to the pain endured on campus," student Varun Prasad said.
In 2014, Duke changed the name of a building named after Charles Aycock, another white supremacist.
“This means that Duke University can and should rename a building, in this instance, the Carr building,” a graduate student said at Wednesday’s protest.
Carr’s racist views have prompted some in the Town of Carrboro to push for a renaming there too. Town leaders said it would be too costly and confusing and instead said they will add a plaque outside Town Hall to acknowledge his racism.
