The name of a former one-time governor who led the Ku Klux Klan will be removed from a University of Alabama campus building.
University of Alabama trustees unanimously voted to strip the name of former KKK leader and governor Bibb Graves off the building on Friday and agreed to rename it Autherine Lucy Hall after the school’s first Black student.
The unanimous vote rolled back a previous decision from the trustees to include both names on the campus building.
“It’s never too late to make the right decision,” said John England, a former trustee who led a committee that initially recommended the joint name and then reversed itself following criticism pointing out that the names of a trailblazing Black student and a governor with ties to a violent, racist organization don't belong together.
The campus building will now be known as the Autherine Lucy Hall in honor of former student Autherine Lucy Foster, who was the first Black person to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1956.
Foster briefly attended classes in that same building, formerly known as Graves Hall, but she was expelled from the university three days later after her presence sparked protests and threats against her life.
“The board’s priority is to honor Dr. Autherine Lucy Foster, who, as the first African American student to attend the University of Alabama, opened the door for students of all races to achieve their dreams at the university. Unfortunately, the complex legacy of Governor Graves has distracted from that important priority,” the university said in a statement this week.
Foster’s family wanted to use her maiden name since she was known as Autherine Lucy while originally on campus, according to Chancellor Finis St. Johnson.
In 2019, Foster was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university, where she had returned and earned a masters degree in education in 1992.
The university also recognized her in 2017 with a historic marker in front of Graves Hall, which houses the college of education. It named a clock tower after Foster, and she’s a member of the university’s student hall of fame.
Other universities in Alabama — such as Troy University, Alabama State University and Jacksonville State University — have also removed the former governor’s name from its buildings as the nation reconsidered its past and address its history of segregation, according to The Montgomery Advertiser.
England, who is Black, previously said that members of the committee that initially recommended keeping both Graves and Foster's name on the Alabama campus building wrestled with what to do about Graves’ name.
“Some say he did more to directly benefit African American Alabamians than any other governor through his reform," he said. "Unfortunately, that same Gov. Graves was associated with the Ku Klux Klan. Not just associated with the Ku Klux Klan, but a Grand Cyclops — It’s hard for me to even say those words."
Foster, 92, is a retired teacher who lives in metro Birmingham.
In a statement issued through the university system last week, Foster said she was grateful “to all who think that this naming opportunity has the potential to motivate and encourage others to embrace the importance of education, and to have the courage to commit to things that seek to make a difference in the lives of others.”
