Editorial: Just go ahead and rename Winthrop’s Tillman Hall

What’s in a name? Would a building on Winthrop University’s campus – or a prize for academic achievement – reflect a racist heritage if it were named something other than Tillman?

Certainly not, we think.

The aforementioned building, easily the most prominent on campus, has the misfortune of being named after one of the South’s most notorious racists – “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman – both a governor and U.S. senator from South Carolina. While he was a hero to poor white farmers and helped establish Winthrop and Clemson universities, he also was known as a white supremacist firebrand and champion of segregation who bragged of killing black people and advocated lynching.

The naming of the building had little to do with heritage and a lot to do with hate. The building, previously known as Main Hall, was renamed after Tillman in 1962 at the height of the civil rights movement. Few would dispute that the name change was a defiant gesture against the forces of integration.

Tillman’s name also has adorned Winthrop’s prize for students with the highest GPA for the past 75 years – until last week. Top students at Saturday’s graduation ceremonies will instead receive a President’s Award for Academic Excellence.

Winthrop President Dan Mahony presented the name change to the school’s board of trustees more as an issue of funding than anything to do with Tillman’s villainous past. Money originally dedicated to the award dwindled 30 years ago, and the university has paid for it from other funds until the past spring, when the decision was made to do away with the award.

But it didn’t entirely disappear; it was replaced by the President’s Award. And here we give a big shout-out to Mahony and provost Debra Boyd, who decided to pay for the award out of their own pockets. It will cost around $250 – or more if multiple students earn top academic ranking.

Perhaps this all unfolded as Mahony and others have relayed. But the explanation might also be an effort to tiptoe around the decision to drop Tillman’s name from the award.

But while that might be controversial in some circles, we think it is entirely appropriate on its own merits, whatever the status of the award fund. In fact, why stop there? Why not drop the name from Tillman Hall as well?

Oh, we know, the state Legislature won’t let that happen. Lawmakers must give their approval – by way of a super-majority vote – before any state building or monument with an official historical name can be named something else.

But what’s to stop Winthrop from simply calling the building something else – such as Main Hall, which was its name before it was given Pitchfork Ben’s monicker?

Mike Fortune, one of the students who asked the Winthrop board last year to consider changing the name of the building, thinks Winthrop would have no problem renaming the building on its own.

“Do you think the cops are going to come down there and arrest you?” Fortune asked. Good question.

And wouldn’t it be interesting to test just how far state lawmakers are willing to go to preserve the so-called heritage of a building stuck with the name of an avowed racist?

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Editorial: Just go ahead and rename Winthrop’s Tillman Hall."