Board of Trustees Votes to Rename UA’s Nott Hall to Honors Hall
The University of Alabama Board of Trustees voted unanimously to rename Nott Hall on their Tuscaloosa campus Wednesday,
Nott Hall is the home of the University's Honor's College and is located between Gallalee Hall and Lloyd Hall on the east side of the campus's iconic Quad.
The building was named after Josiah C. Nott, a prominent 19th-century surgeon who argued that Black people lived longer and thrived best under the institution of slavery.
Trustee John H. England, Jr., leads a working group that is conducting a detailed study of buildings on all three University of Alabama System campuses to determine what action should be taken in light of the University's commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion.
"Our group verified that Josiah Nott supported slavery and misused medical evidence to argue that non-white races were inferior and that my ancestors, like scores of others, were destined for destruction," England said. "Of course, I’m still here."
England also said that the University's connections to Nott were "scarce at best."
The working group unanimously recommended changing the building's name to Honors Hall, which the Board of Trustees adopted unanimously.
England said the new name may not be permanent, but it is an important step forward for the System.
The change follows growing pressure on the institutions across the country to reckon with racist or Confederate iconography.
In early June, the University of Alabama President Stuart Bell announced that UA would removed three plaques on and in front of Gorgas Library that commemorated Alabama students who served in the Confederate Army and memory of the student cadet corps who defended the campus when most of its buildings were burned by Union troops in 1865.
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