Dorm inscription removal gets OK

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will pay more than $1 million to remove an inscription containing the word “Confederate” from one of its campus dorms.

The private university has referred to the Confederate Memorial Hall simply as “Memorial Hall” since 2002, but it was blocked in court from changing the name chiseled on the building because it was constructed with the help of a $50,000 gift from the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933.

Under the agreement, Vanderbilt will pay $1.2 million, the equivalent of the gift made 83 years ago, to the organization’s Tennessee chapter. In exchange, the chapter will relinquish its naming rights to the building.

Vanderbilt said the money will come from anonymous donors.

The move comes as Tennessee lawmakers have acted to make it more difficult to remove Confederate symbols and statues from public places.

Under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act passed earlier this year, it now takes a vote of at least two-thirds of the Tennessee Historical Commission to approve changing or removing historical markers. That’s an increase from the previous requirement of a simple majority vote.

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