After two and half hours of debate, the board of trustees at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, tabled a motion to change the name of Aycock Residence Hall on campus. The building, which opened in 1960, was named after Charles B. Aycock, a former governor of North Carolina, who was a strong supporter of White supremacy. The board will reconsider the motion in February.
“There are strong feelings on both sides of this issue, as reflected by the board’s own discussion,” board of trustees chair Robert Brinkley said. “There are many levels of concerns and the feeling of the majority was that we should take sufficient time for the views and concerns to be duly considered. We want to address this issue in a responsive manner, and believe more time is needed to do so.”
Aycock served as governor of North Carolina from 1901 to 1905. While Governor Aycock was a strong advocate for public education, he also was a staunch segregationist and led efforts to disenfranchise Black voters in the state.
In June 2014, Duke University renamed a building on its campus that had honored Aycock. At that time Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead said that “after careful consideration, we believe it is no longer appropriate to honor a figure who played so active a role in the history that counters the values of inclusion and nondiscrimination that are key parts of the university’s mission.”
If one applied this standard across the country at the overwhelmingly majority of Historically White Colleges and Universities (HWCUs), highways, streets, bridges, airports, parks, holiday’s, along with the incessant statues, they would be demolishing structures for a long time. Let’s not forget about the MNCs from Heinz, Duke, Morgan, Ford, Koch, Nestle, Del Monte, Dole, Goodyear, Firestone, Exxon, BP, Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Busch, Dupont, etc…. who have historically and currently exploit people fiscally, physically, and psychologically.