The University of Alabama is set to remove the name of the state’s racist former governor, Bibb Graves, from a campus building and solely honor its first Black student – Autherine Juanita Lucy Foster.
On February 3, the university’s board of trustees voted to honor Graves, a notorious former Grand Cyclops of the KKK, school alumni, and two-term governor in the state (1927-1931 and 1935-1939). Although, the University of Alabama cited Graves’ funding of education and renouncement of the KKK as its reason for honoring the racist man. Detractors, with common sense, argued that he was still a bigot and his policies were not fair, non-discriminatory or equitable.
An associate professor pointed out that it was a slap in the face to honor Lucy Foster by having her good name connected to a known white supremacist.
“It felt that even her [Foster’s] legacy, no matter what accolades she had previously as a Black woman, it did not matter. She had to share the indignity of being on a building name hyphenated with a Klansmen,” said Hilary Green, an associate history professor at the University of Alabama.
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