Good riddance to RU’s Powell Hall

Posted in Articles, Campus Life, History, Media Archive, United States, Virginia on 2016-12-16 01:07Z by Steven

Good riddance to RU’s Powell Hall

The Roanoke Times
Roanoke, Virginia
2010-09-21

Christina Nuckols, Editorial Page Editor

One can, if optimistically predisposed to believe in the inherent honesty and good-natured character of people, accept the story of why Radford University’s arts and music building still bore the name of John Powell until last week.

One might, just barely, trust that university leaders in 1967 chose the name ignorant of Powell’s past, even though the U.S. Supreme Court that same year struck down the Virginia anti-miscegenation law that he had championed.

It’s easier to believe Interim Provost Joe Scartelli when he says he intended to change the name of the building in 2005 after he learned about Powell’s racism, but forgot amid renovation and construction plans…

Read the entire article here.

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