Duke history professors ask to rename their building

Related Link Duke releases text of history department's request to rename Carr Building

While the University of North Carolina is grappling with what to do with a Confederate statue toppled by protesters last week, its neighbor Duke University is also confronting its complicated past — and present.

Historians at Duke have asked the university to change the name of the Carr Building, which houses their department. It honors the wealthy industrialist Julian Carr, who donated the land that now comprises Duke’s East Campus — and who made a now-infamous speech dedicating the Confederate statue known as “Silent Sam” at UNC.

Carr’s remarks were sweeping and personal. Confederate soldiers had saved the Anglo-Saxon race in the South, Carr said in his lengthy speech, and “to-day, as a consequence the purest strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States — Praise God.”

He also talked about a “pleasing duty” of his own: “I horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady.”

Protesters at UNC alluded to Carr’s words on one of the banners held aloft as Silent Sam was being pulled down last week. ...