TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees voted Friday to rename two buildings after members of the student government asked them to remove “racist namesakes” from campus last year.
According to our news partners at AL.com, the board voted unanimously to rename the Ferguson Student Center and Moore Hall.
The buildings will now be known as the UA Student Center and Archie Wade Hall, respectively.
Wade, who still lives in Tuscaloosa, was the first Black faculty member at the University of Alabama and served in the department of kinesiology for 30 years. He was also a founding member of the Black Faculty and Staff Association and helped led the integration of then-Denny Stadium.
According to The Crimson White, the university’s student newspaper, Ferguson Hall was named after former trustee William Hill Ferguson who opposed desegregation.
Trustee John England Jr. told The Crimson White that Ferguson’s views were inconsistent with “our system’s shared values.”
The other building to be renamed, Moore Hall, was named for Albert Burton Moore, a history professor and first dean of the Graduate school who also served as executive director of the Civil War Centennial Commission in the state.
Several buildings on campus, including The English Building, which used to be called Morgan Hall. The building was named after Confederate General John Tyler Morgan, who went on to become a U.S. Senator with ties to the Ku Klux Klan.