Another pervasive element of Confederate symbolism on Grounds is in the very names of university buildings themselves. This is another issue that has garnered more attention recently in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the widespread protests for racial justice this summer. As a Southern institution, it’s not surprising that many University buildings have such connections to Confederate individuals. However, is it time to cut ties with such namesakes? As we consider the power that words hold, we must ask ourselves, what’s in a name?
RUFFNER HALL AND THE CURRY SCHOOL
In November of 2018, Dean Robert Pianta of the Curry School of Education and Human Development instructed an ad hoc Committee on Names to conduct a “thorough and thoughtful process of study” regarding the future of the Curry and Ruffner names, given that both men were defenders of slavery and proponents of segregation. The Curry School, founded in 1905, was named in honor of J.L.M. Curry, a Georgia politician who advocated for Southern secession, served in the Confederate House of Representatives, and served as an officer of the Confederate army in the Civil War. In the 1880s and 90s, Curry worked to build public education institutions in the South, helping to found Virginia’s first teaching academy at what is now Longwood University. William H. Ruffner, the namesake of one of the school’s academic buildings, was the first superintendent of Virginia’s segregated public school system, as well as a slave owner and advocate for “colonization”, or the relocation of emancipated slaves to Africa. Ruffner Hall opened in 1973.
The ad hoc Committee on Names was co-chaired by Robert Berry, a professor in the Curry School, and Susan Kools, a professor in the School of Nursing, and included students, alumni, faculty, staff and members of the broader University community. Berry said their purpose was to “engage in the due diligence to understand how and whether the namesakes represent the current mission and values of the school.” Part of what sparked this reevaluation was the fact that the University’s Policy on Naming was updated earlier that year, in October of 2018. The policy now states that those honored with building names “should demonstrate virtues the University hopes its students seek to emulate,” such as “inclusion and diversity.” Furthermore, the policy acknowledges the university's use of names “as a tool to build a living history,” demonstrating the close relationship between history and memory. It asserts that “names serve as a projection of our values: names reflect our traditions (where we have been) and our aspirations (where we are headed).”
“The moment in time is right to delve deeper into the lives of these men to determine if using their names as honorifics fit with the School’s strong commitment to inclusion and equity for all who learn and work here"
-Susan Kools, co-chair of ad hoc Committee on Names
In April 2020, the University’s Committee on Names officially recommended changing the names of the Curry School of Education and Human Development and Ruffner Hall after a subcommittee report determined that the contributions Curry and Ruffner made to education in Virginia and the South were overshadowed by their legacies of racial prejudice. The report argued that renaming must consider both the past and present, noting that the “achievements and values of the individual after whom something is named must be considered both in the context of his or her time and place and as a legacy for the present day. … Respect for both is required.” Ultimately, the subcommittee decided that “the burden imposed in the twenty-first century by association with the nineteenth-century prejudices of Curry and Ruffner justify removing their names.” A notable fact in the subcommittee’s deliberation was that neither Curry nor Ruffner had any direct connection to the University. Neither was a graduate, neither taught at UVA, and neither made any contribution to the institution. However, this begs the question, should that make a difference? Even if they had stronger ties to the University, should such an affiliation change our perspective on problematic pasts? It’s an interesting aspect to consider, and unfortunately one without a clear answer.
Subsequently, in June 2020, the University’s Board of Visitors voted to rename Ruffner Hall to Ridley Hall in honor of Walter Ridley, the first African American to earn a doctoral degree from UVA. It was a unanimous vote. Furthermore, in September, the Board voted to officially drop the name Curry from the Curry School of Education, alongside five other resolutions dedicated to racial equity. Such a change mirrored the country’s recent reckoning with Confederate memory and reflected a greater need to grapple with the complex legacies of historical figures. UVA Professor Gary Gallagher, who was tasked with providing an independent historical assessment during the subcommittee report, even acknowledged Curry’s conflicted history. “Curry showed real vision in advocating free public education for the South’s Black children, but an overclouding blindness in refusing to recognize African Americans as having the same potentialities and capacities as whites,” he said. To deal with the complicated nature of such an issue, one of the other original recommendations made by the Committee on Names was to install memorial plaques and exhibits in Bavaro Hall – the main building of the education school – to honor the contributions made to public education by Curry and Ruffner. Although I don’t believe this recommendation has been voted on by the Board of Visitors yet, combined with the recommendations for renaming, it demonstrates a concerted effort to reject outdated principles of the past while also ensuring history is not erased and is instead used as a learning opportunity.
In addition to the numerous resolutions passed at the Board of Visitors meeting in September, President Jim Ryan also announced that several recommendations were being made to the University’s Committee on Names — which will be renamed the Naming and Memorials Committee — regarding their policies and procedures for changes to UVA's historic landscape. Ryan specified three recommendations: that the University be open to renaming a building once the time period for a name expires; that the University’s built environment should not celebrate the Confederacy or the myth of the Lost Cause; and that when there is a name change, the University should make a full biography of the previous namesake easily available in order to ensure that community members address and learn from history, not erase it. I think that all three of these recommendations will ultimately serve to promote a historic landscape that better reflects the values of the University while also fulfilling the University's responsibility to imbue future generations with a better understanding of the past.
STUDENT PETITION
In another example of renaming efforts more centered around student activism, three UVA students and the Brown College Portal Rename Committee started a petition in June of this year calling for the removal of problematic names from university buildings. This petition was created after the Board of Visitors approved the renaming of Ruffner Hall, but before the Board met in September to pass the six resolutions for racial equity. The creators acknowledged renaming Ruffner Hall as progress, but emphasized that it was not enough. The petition then listed 23 individuals, including Frank Hume and Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, along with explanations for why each person was undeserving of memorialization on Grounds.
Other notable individuals listed (and their connections to the Civil War) include:
Edwin Alderman (Alderman Library, Alderman Road): As the inaugural president at the University, Alderman accepted a donation to the University from the Ku Klux Klan in 1921. He also helped unveil the Robert E. Lee statue in downtown Charlottesville in 1924, which was shrouded in a Confederate flag.
Milton Wylie Humphreys (Humphreys dorm): Humphreys was a Confederate sergeant and introduced innovative warfare and artillery techniques by using them against the Union army.
Socrates Maupin (Lile-Maupin dorm): Maupin was a supporter of the Confederate cause but ultimately surrendered the University to the Union as Chairman of the Faculty during the Civil War. Although recognizing the Confederacy’s loss, he did not accept a job position in Philadelphia because of his incessant loyalty to the South.
Matthew Fontaine Maury (Maury Hall): Maury served as a naval officer for the Confederacy. In 1855, he spoke at the University and argued that the South’s great progress and internal development, better than that witnessed by any society before, was almost entirely attributable to slavery. Maury Hall has housed the Naval ROTC since 1941.
Charles Broadway Rouss (Rouss Hall): Rouss was a blockade runner and later a Confederate private during the Civil War. After the war, he pledged $100,000 to the creation of a Confederate memorial building, which eventually became the Confederate Memorial Institute (Battle Abbey) in Richmond. Rouss gave an additional $5,000 to a monument memorializing the New York Camp of Confederate Veterans. Historian Daniel E. Sutherland wrote that Rouss “may have been the biggest financial contributor to memorialize the Lost Cause.” Interestingly, Rouss was neither affiliated with the University nor was he a former student or teacher. But as one of the richest men in the country, he donated $35,000 to the University.
Henry Malcolm Withers (Withers-Brown Hall): Withers was a Confederate soldier whose wealth was accumulated by raiding Union railroad cars during the Civil War.
In addition to the above names, the petition also demanded that UVA rename all twelve of the Brown Residential College “portals” (towers), many of which were named after former Confederate soldiers and slaveholders.
Ultimately, the petition garnered more than 2,400 signatures over the summer and may have even influenced the Board of Visitors’ decision in September to rename the Curry School, Withers-Brown Hall, and rededicate/remove the Frank Hume Memorial. However, the petition creators posted an update shortly after the renaming announcement and stressed that such change “only scratche[d] the surface of what needs to be done at UVA”.
FINAL THOUGHTS
These debates about renaming are similar to debates about removing Confederate monuments. While monuments serve as a more noticeable reminder of the principles they are meant to promote, we often overlook the names that populate our everyday lives. However, I don’t think that makes names any less harmful. Ultimately, by having buildings named after Confederate figures, the University tacitly endorses their values as its own. Nevertheless, although changing names may be the first step toward addressing the past in pursuit of a better future, it can’t stop there. As David Blight wrote, “what comes after this change in commemoration will determine whether we are truly witnessing the death of the Lost Cause.” It can’t just stop with the renaming and it can’t just stop with the monument removal either. UVA must also make tangible efforts to address the systematic racism that perpetuates oppression and inequality. Although this is a big undertaking, rejecting space and place names that don’t accurately reflect our values as an academic institution is a clear and symbolic first step in the right direction.
Bibliography:
Blight, David W. “Europe in 1989, America in 2020, and the Death of the Lost Cause.” The New
Yorker, 1 July 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/europe-in-1989-
Coy, Brian. “Curry School Renaming Recommendation Referred to University Board of Visitors.”
UVA Today, 8 May 2020, news.virginia.edu/content/curry-school-renaming-
“EXT-004: Naming Policies for the University of Virginia.” Policy Directory – University of
Virginia, 12 Oct. 2018, uvapolicy.virginia.edu/policy/EXT-004.
Gaski, Acacia. “A Good Name Is Hard to Find.” The Cavalier Daily, 19 Nov. 2001,
Jeffries, John C. “Report of the Naming Subcommittee,” The University of Virginia Committee on
Names, 22 April 2020.
McCrimmon, Sophia, and Sydney Herzog. “Curry School Considers Changing Name.” The
Cavalier Daily, 29 Nov. 2018, www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2018/11/curry-school-
McKenzie, Bryan. “UVa Board Votes to Support Changes in Culture and Grounds to Seek
Racial Equity.” The Daily Progress, 11 Sept. 2020, dailyprogress.com/news/local/uva-board-
Monaghan, Emmy. “UVA Cannot Honor These Names on Grounds.” Change.org, June 2020,
Surovell, Eva. “U.Va. Board of Visitors Votes to Contextualize Thomas Jefferson Statue,
Remove George Rogers Clark Statue.” The Cavalier Daily, 12 Sept. 2020,
Walls, Ben. “University of Virginia Looks to Rename Buildings Named after Men with 'Legacy of
Racial Prejudice'.” The College Fix, 26 May 2020, https://www.thecol legefix.com/uva-looks-
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