A UNC commission examining the university’s history of race and connections to white supremacy approved a resolution to change the names of four campus buildings.

The UNC Commission on History, Race and A Way Forward met virtually Friday to discuss an action plan for the group as it works over the next three years. One element of the plan is to recommend changes to building names around campus who honor people with backgrounds of promoting racism.

During its meeting, the 18-member group voted and passed a resolution to change the names of four such buildings: Aycock Residence Hall, Ruffin Residence Hall, the Carr Building and the Josephus Daniels Building, which houses the Student Stores.

The action from the commission comes in its first meeting since the university’s Board of Trustees lifted a 16-year moratorium on changing building names. The measure in June came after discussions of UNC’s response to ongoing discussions of systemic racism and racial injustice in society.

Briefs attached with the resolution include details of each of the buildings’ namesakes and their history of white supremacy. 

UNC alumnus Charles Brantley Aycock campaigned on a platform of white supremacy and Black disenfranchisement during a successful run for North Carolina Governor at the turn of the 20th century. He also regularly condoned violence as an intimidation tactic of Black voters and white allies. The UNC Board of Trustees named the residence hall in his honor in 1928.

Alumnus Thomas Ruffin had a residence hall dedicated in his and his son’s honor by the board six years earlier. Ruffin, once a North Carolina Supreme Court justice, fortified the institution of slavery with his authority and directly profited from the domestic slave trade in the mid-1800’s.

Josephus Daniels, who studied law at UNC and served as a trustee, as the editor and publisher of the News & Observer at the end of the 19th century. He used the newspaper to share propaganda of the Democratic Party, which ran white supremacy campaigns in the late 1800’s and helped spark the Wilmington Massacre in 1898.

Julian Carr, known by many as the man who read the dedication speech of the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam, served as a UNC trustee for more than 40 years. He helped finance the Democratic Party’s white supremacy campaign of 1898 and regularly condoned violence against Black residents to suppress their claims of citizenship. Carr is also the namesake for the Town of Carrboro.

The commission’s resolution now heads to UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and the Board of Trustees for consideration. The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday this week.

To watch the full meeting of the UNC Commission on History, Race and A Way Forward, visit its YouTube channel.

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