COLUMBIA — Members of the recently revived NAACP chapter at the University of South Carolina staged a mock ribbon-cutting for Willie Lloyd Harriford Jr., whose name they would like to see replace Thomas Cooper's on the campus' main library.
The ceremony, held in front of the library on Feb. 17 for a crowd of roughly 50 people, kicked off the chapter's call for university officials to rename campus buildings honoring people with racially insensitive records — including the school's fitness center named after former U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond.
"I am confused on why we have to have this conversation," said NAACP USC chapter President Caley Bright, questioning why university leaders would want to have noninclusive figureheads on its buildings.
"I am confused that we have all these influential African Americans at this school, yet no one feels the urgency to rename these buildings," she added.
The "Aim to Rename" campaign comes less than a week after a special panel charged with examining building names approved criteria for considering namesakes on campus. The commission, formed by President Bob Caslen soon after his arrival on campus in 2019, meets again Feb. 18 to discuss a timeline for sending him their recommendations for new names, as well as other educational efforts meant to address the school's past connections to slavery and racial inequality.
The student-led civil rights organization also called on state legislators to repeal South Carolina's Heritage Act, which stands in the way of renaming efforts.
Bright called on students and the public to contact their state legislators and for campus administrators to do the same.
Taylor Platt, the granddaughter of the late Harriford, who was a prominent S.C. civil rights figure and the first Black administrator at USC, was there to lend her family's support to the movement.
"My grandfather believed in inclusion for all people," Platt said. "He felt this body of faculty, staff and students, paired with the knowledge gained by from learning from the past, the Gamecocks would be able to stand on their own merit and not be judged by the color of their skin."
USC’s Board of Trustees has been receptive to asking state lawmakers to rename a dorm whose namesake, J. Marion Sims, was a 19th century doctor who performed medical experiments on slaves.
Other buildings on USC’s campus under consideration include the admissions office and student apartments named after slave owners — Francis Lieber and James Henley Thornwell — as well a dorm named for KKK sympathizer and Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton.
But board members have been hesitant when it comes to Thurmond, a 20th century politician who started his career as a segregationist.
The move to remove Thurmond’s name from the fitness center drew attention from current and former USC athletes, notably Dawn Staley, the popular Gamecocks women’s basketball coach.
But even if the effort gets passed by USC's board, legislative approval is still needed due to the Heritage Act, which requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate to rename historical monuments, streets and buildings.
Lawmakers last had to overcome the requirements of the legislation to remove the Confederate battle flag from Statehouse grounds after the racially motivated 2015 Emanuel AME Church massacre in Charleston.
Clemson University and Winthrop University joined USC in agreeing to ask the Legislature to change the name of a building on campus in 2020. Trustees of both schools voted to remove the name of Ben Tillman, a former governor and senator and post-Civil War white supremacist, from buildings but the efforts have gone nowhere because no bills have been introduced in the General Assembly.
But Bright said the NAACP was "built to fight issues like this."
And if leaders balk at the removal of Thurmond's name from the fitness center, USC NAACP member Dyrek Hamilton said the chapter would come back with more than a social media campaign.
"We feel like we've done enough compromising," he said.
