Yale University will rename a building commemorating Vice President John C. Calhoun after months of protests against his slave-owning past, school president Peter Salovey announced Saturday.
“John C. Calhoun’s legacy as a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately supported slavery as a ‘positive good’ fundamentally conflicts with Yale’s mission and values,” Salovey wrote in an email to the campus community.
The move reverses Yale’s decision last April to keep Calhoun’s name on the residential complex following months of demonstrations, and it represents the first time in the school’s 316-year history it renamed a building based on the historic legacy of its alumnus.
A South Carolina statesman and theorist, Calhoun vigorously defended slavery and served as Senator and Vice President under presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.
The Ivy League institution will rename Calhoun House after U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and computer science pioneer Grace Hopper.
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