TO THE EDITOR:
As an alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I appreciate the dialogue that the name Saunders Hall is evoking.
However, I don’t feel the hall should be named the Hurston Hall, after Zora Neale Hurston.
While I think Hurston is a widely acclaimed poet, her contributions to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are hardly any more worthy than those of others.
I would propose that Saunders Hall, if it’s going to be renamed, be done so in the name of the first American Indian, Asian or Latino graduate of the university.
I think all of our graduates, in the past, present and future, would be proud of the University taking such a step.
In regards to American Indians, the first American Indian graduate from UNC was Henry Owl, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee.
Owl was the first person of color admitted to the University of North Carolina and the first American Indian graduate. He received his master’s degree in history from the school in 1929.
Owl’s master’s thesis was entitled “The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians: Before and After the Removal.”
