Winthrop protesters need trustees’ support

Last week’s peaceful protest by students and faculty members at Winthrop University addressed numerous issues, including the hundreds victims of police violence this year. But the foremost goal of the protesters was to change the name of Tillman Hall.

This would be an opportune time for Winthrop’s Board of Trustees to step up and lend their support to students, faculty and administrators calling for the name change. Sadly, however, trustees decided Saturday to sit on the sidelines instead.

The protest last week involved around 70 students and faculty who marched from the DiGiorgio Campus Center to Tillman Hall, the school’s administration building. There they staged a five-hour sit-in that included speeches and a “die-in” to oppose the police shootings.

But while the shootings were a central theme in the protest, the call to action centered on changing the name of Tillman Hall.

“It’s a symbol of hatred, prejudice and white supremacy,” said Samantha Valdez, a graduate student, in reference to Tillman Hall. “For us to keep up our diversity on campus, we need to change these elements on campus.”

We think those who favor renaming the building have a good case. Ben Tillman was one of the South’s most notorious racists.

“Pitchfork Ben” – both a governor and U.S. senator from South Carolina – was known as a bigoted fire-brand and champion of segregation who bragged of killing black people and advocated lynchings. While he was a hero to poor white farmers and helped establish Clemson University and Winthrop College as a women’s training school for teachers, there is no legitimate reason that his name should adorn Winthrop’s administration building.

Clemson, by the way, is wrestling with the issue of changing the name of its own Tillman Hall.

The naming of the building on Winthrop’s campus had little to do with heritage and a lot to do with hate. The building had been known simply as Main Hall for decades, but in 1962, at the height of the civil rights movement, it was renamed Tillman Hall, clearly as a defiant gesture toward the forces of integration.

Unfortunately, the university faces legal obstacles to changing the name. Under the South Carolina Heritage Act, passed in 2000, state lawmakers must give their approval by a two-thirds vote before any state building or monument with an official historical name can be renamed.

Trustees apparently think that is too high a hurdle to overcome. They voted Saturday not to consider or adopt any formal resolution regarding Tillman Hall.

Karl Folkens, chairman of the board, said that creating a full resolution for debate was “futile” because trustees were skeptical that the Legislature would allow the name change. Folkens suggested instead that students let their legislators “know their sentiments.”

This is a cop-out. The difficulty of persuading lawmakers to approve the name change is not an adequate excuse for refusing to act at all.

Students can – and probably will – work to sway the Legislature on this issue. But they could use the clout of campus leaders on their behalf.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if the board decided unilaterally to officially start calling the building Main Hall, its name prior to 1962, without appealing to the Legislature. Just how far would lawmakers go to preserve the so-called heritage of a building stuck with the name of an avowed racist?

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Winthrop protesters need trustees’ support."