The College of Alabama is including the title of the primary Black scholar to attend the college to a constructing, renaming Graves Corridor to Lucy-Graves Corridor.

The Board of Trustees' resolution on Thursday so as to add Autherine Lucy Foster's title to the constructing comes 66 years after she first enrolled on the college. Foster, 92, attended the college for 3 days in 1956, however her attendance led to riots and protests and he or she was expelled, in keeping with The Crimson White, the College of Alabama's scholar newspaper. She earned her grasp's from the varsity in 1992 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2019.

The constructing will nonetheless function the title of former Alabama Governor Bibb Graves, who was as soon as the Grand Cyclops of the KKK earlier than denouncing the group within the late Nineteen Twenties.

The choice to not take away Graves' title from the constructing drew criticism on Twitter. Katie Deale, an alumna of the college, wrote on Twitter and threatened to not donate "a cent" to the varsity till the college removes Graves' title.

Meredith Cummings, an teacher at and an alumna of the varsity, instructed Newsweek that she disagreed with maintaining Graves' title.

"This is only one extra [decision] in a protracted line of selections which can be questionable and it looks as if this one would have been a simple one, to not put a Klan member's title proper subsequent to somebody revered like Autherine [Lucy] Foster. It looks as if a no brainer," Cummings stated.

An opinion piece printed on The Crimson White questions whether or not his title belongs on the constructing in any respect. In 2020, almost 2,000 individuals signed a Change.org petition to rename Graves Corridor completely for Foster. In 2017, a dedication marker was positioned in entrance of the constructing.

Autherine Lucy Foster University of Alabama
Autherine Lucy Foster's title was added to Graves Corridor on the 66th anniversary of her enrollment because the College of Alabama's first Black scholar. Above, the Autherine Lucy Foster historic marker stands exterior Bibb Graves Corridor on the College of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on July 5, 2018.Raymond Boyd/Getty Photographs

Trustee Emeritus Decide John England Jr., the chair of the building-names working group in command of renaming buildings, instructed The Crimson White that some historians take into account Graves as one of the vital progressive governors in Alabama's historical past.

"Some say he did extra to straight profit African American Alabamians than some other governor by his many reforms," England stated.

The working group selected to go away Graves' title on the constructing since his involvement within the KKK was politically motivated, in keeping with The Crimson White.

"Many historians have concluded that Gov. Graves's affiliation with the KKK was a political maneuver in that it helped Gov. Graves together with sure allies," the board decision stated.

Regardless of claims that Graves was a progressive governor, Cummings maintains that no Klan members ought to have their title on a constructing.

Graves' title is also on a constructing at Auburn College in Alabama. Different universities within the state, together with Alabama State College, Jacksonville State College and Troy College, opted to take away his title from buildings.