After George Floyd’s death, USC alumni circulate petition to rename buildings

University of South Carolina alumni are circulating a petition to rename two buildings on campus whose namesakes were tied to segregation or slavery.

The two online petitions, calling for the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center and Sims at Women’s Quad, a dormitory for female students, to be renamed, have each received more than 2,000 signatures, according to the petitions.

The petitions cite Thurmond’s long opposition to racial integration and J. Marion Sims — considered to be the father of modern gynecology — experimenting on enslaved women without anesthesia.

“I Googled his name and was immediately infuriated that the most prominent building on campus was named after a racist politician,” said Heather Armel, a 2014 USC graduate who started the petition to rename the Strom Thurmond center.

Thurmond, a former governor, was a U.S. senator from 1954 until 2003. He was a third-party candidate for president in 1948, representing the States’ Rights Democratic Party, or Dixiecrats, whose campaign slogan was “Segregation Forever.” He died in 2003.

Buildings in S.C. can only be renamed by the state legislature, according to the Heritage Act.

The petition to rename USC’s fitness center is separate from the one to rename the women’s dorm. Armel said she didn’t know, and hadn’t coordinated with, Emilie Parsons, the USC senior who started the Sims petition.

With all the energy and unrest following the killing of George Floyd, it is high time for change, said Dave McGibbon, a 2014 USC graduate who signed both petitions.

Floyd, an African American, died May 25 while in police custody in Minneapolis. A video shows an officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Four former police officers have been charged in his death.

“Overall, if you look at the context with everything going on with George Floyd, it makes a lot of sense for USC to modernize itself and free itself from these ties to a history of oppression,” McGibbon said.

Though other efforts to remove these monuments and others like them have failed in the past, McGibbon said he is hopeful.

“Right now is a moment for change,” McGibbon said. “We’ve seen progress on issues like this in recent history, in terms of the Confederate flag.”

In 2015, the state legislature voted to remove a Confederate flag from the State House grounds following the massacre by a white supremacist of nine African American parishioners in a Charleston church.

Since starting the petition, Armel said she has seen “overwhelmingly positive” feedback, something she thinks could translate into real change.

“This is bigger than USC. This is bigger than South Carolina,” Armel said.

This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 5:35 PM.