A counter protest, Jesse Jackson latest to shape debate on Clemson’s Tillman Hall
A counter protest Saturday and the addition of civil rights icon Jesse Jackson to the debate on Friday have ratcheted up the heat in the debate over Clemson University’s Tillman Hall.
Benjamin Tillman, a former South Carolina governor whose statue stands on the State House grounds, was one of the founding trustees of Clemson and an outspoken white supremacist.
A faculty committee and a student-led movement both in recent days have called for Clemson’s board of trustees to rename Tillman Hall, the school’s most-recognizable building. About 80 students marched to the university president’s office earlier this month and made changing the building’s name one of their demands.
Brianna Youngbloodk, a black biochemistry major from Charleston who was one of those marchers, said she thinks changing Tillman’s name would show that the university doesn’t agree with Ben Tillman’s racist views.
“I don’t feel like the Clemson family embodies everybody,” she said. “It’s not necessarily intentional, but this campus isn’t really as open as it should be.”
In an email to students Thursday, Clemson President Jim Clements addressed incidents such as a gang-themed fraternity “Cripmas” party and insensitive social media comments that built tension at Clemson last semester that “made some of our students, faculty and staff feel alienated and unwelcome on campus.”
What has happened since Thursday:
JESSE JACKSON. Civil Rights icon and Greenville native Jesse Jackson on Friday said Clemson should change the name of the building because it honors a racist who advocated brutality against black people. Jackson, keynote speaker at the MLK Diversity Banquet, was asked what he thought by a Greenville News reporter.
Jackson said Clemson should honor South Carolina figures such as Harvey Gantt, who in 1963 became the first black student to be admitted to Clemson and, later, the first black mayor of Charlotte.
“People of conscience must choose Harvey Gantt going forward as a symbol and not Ben Tillman going backward,” Jackson said.
Jackson said that if Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would focus his efforts on reducing poverty. Jackson sharply criticized state leaders for refusing to expand Medicaid to include an estimated 400,000 South Carolinians.
“Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction,” Jackson said.
COUNTER PROTEST. A gathering on campus Saturday billed itself as a counter protest against the push for changing the name of Tillman Hall. But those in attendance ended up engaging in more of an informal debate.
There were no bullhorns and no shouting, other than a few people riding by in cars yelling “save Tillman!” Instead, informal discussion groups formed, and the day was marked by civil discourse over an issue that has elicited strong opinions on both sides.
Most of the 65 or so who gathered were students, but some alumni and people with family ties to Clemson showed up to support keeping the building’s name.
Jim Wilder, a 1965 Clemson graduate, recalled standing outside Tillman Hall on the day in 1963 when Harvey Gantt enrolled.
“I had no problem and no qualms” with Clemson being integrated, Wilder said.
But he doesn’t want Tillman Hall’s name changed, because even the name of the university would have to be changed if everyone who owned slaves or held racist views in the 19th century were removed from the institution’s nomenclature, he said.
The Greenville News and The Associated Press contributed.
This story was originally published January 18, 2015 at 11:42 PM with the headline "A counter protest, Jesse Jackson latest to shape debate on Clemson’s Tillman Hall."