Vanderbilt to spend $1.2 million to rid itself of a building with the word “Confederate"

In 2005, Vanderbilt conceded defeat in its legal battle to remove the word "Confederate" from one of its residency halls, which was built as Confederate Memorial Hall but which the university prefers to call just Memorial Hall.

The university had announced plans to remove the word in 2002, but the Tennessee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which donated funds for the building in 1933, sued, arguing that the university committed to the name when it took the money. A Tennessee appeals court ruled in favor of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, saying that Vanderbilt could remove the word "Confederate" only if it repaid the group the value of the gift in contemporary dollars.

On Monday, the university announced it would do just that. The 1933 gift was for $50,000. Consistent with the appeals court ruling, the university will give the Tennessee chapter of the Confederate memorial group $1.2 million. The funds came from anonymous donors, with the specific purpose of removing "Confederate" from the building.