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Locations on campus honor prejudice
Whitney Sides
Senior Staff Reporter
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UAB is home to many historically significant events such as housing Martin Luther King, Jr., as he preached from the pulpit of Second Presbyterian Church, in what is now the UAB Honors House on campus.
It is also the home where ithonors individuals who believed in the slogan, “segregation now, segregation forever.”
On June 11, 1963. George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama stood at the door of the Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama to try to block the entry of two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood.
Ironically, Wallace’s name is on top of the doors of Bell-Wallace Gymnasium here on campus, as students of every race go to work out or take their physical education courses.
Lister Hill whose name was given to UAB’s Health Sciences library and the largest biomedical library in Alabama, honors the man who refused to vote in support of the Civil Rights Act.
While serving in Congress, Hill also signed the Southern Manifesto, a document written and signed in 1954 in opposition to racial integration of public places.
There have been no publicly announced plans to change the name of Bell-Wallace gym or Lister Hill library
Dre Jelks, a senior majoring in African-American Studies, said that disparity among educational access for black students still exists today and there’s more UAB can do improve the life of its students of color.
He notes the lack of diversity among faculty as the first step of many that UAB could take to do better.
“As a black man, I’m tired of teachers treating me differently,”Jelks said. “Feeling like they can’t talk to me. That’s where representation matters. Hire more black faces as instructors. I don’t see me when I walk through these hallways.”
This sentiment is shared by his fellow African-American Studies major and Chemistry minor, Nia Moore.
“I feel like in the even in the times I’ve had a professor who was Latino or a woman, I feel like they talk about me, not to me,” Moore said,who transferred to UAB from Howard University, the nation’s most prominent HBCU.
In fact, the fact that UAB continues to honor individuals who once believed in segregation, although Moore said it irritates her, it doesn’t surprise her, “Representation matters,”Moore said. “And walking into the library and seeing that giant picture of Lister Hill or even black athletes having to practice in a gym named after a man who wishes they didn’t go to school here in the first place? Unacceptable, but never surprising.”
Recently, Hilary N. Green, Ph.D., history professor at the University of Alabama has gained nationwide recognition for her “Hallowed Grounds” project, a tour of UA’s campus as told from the perspective of the enslaved people who worked at and built the university in Tuscaloosa.
Green believes that even though UAB is a relatively new campus, it can still benefit from more education about the people who built its legacy.
“Students of UAB are reminded daily about being a part of a diverse campus,” Green said. “But it’s not really that diverse. Compared to other Alabama schools yes, but it’s still what we call a PWI, or a predominately white institution” said Green.
She said the first step in making a change is realizing Birmingham’s history is also UAB’s history and what a rare privilege it is to live, work and study in the place where civil rights was formed.
Green said what she’s done with Hallowed Grounds can definitely translate to UAB. She believes the power for change lies foremost within the students.
“UAB has such a special opportunity as a newer college to make meaningful strides. And I find its students that have the most innovative ideas,” said Green.
Green proposed several ideas for shifting the legacy of the buildings on campus who have problematic names.
“For example, the brick walkway outside of the Wallace building could feature names of prominent students of color, civil rights heroes, anything students feel led to honor,” said Green.
As for Lister Hill, UAB’s medical and scientific discoveries made by black members of the UAB community could be memorialized and put on display within the library.
“Anything is possible” said Green. “Education is key. Realizing Birmingham’s history is UAB’s history and deciding what you want to make it. That’s how it starts.”
