In December, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser retired the Spencer Bell Award after questions were raised over the award’s “integrity.” A January 12 article in The Daily Tar Heel explained the decision by citing a December 3 letter from the Chancellor. “Some esteemed women on our campus—women who I think could be considered for the Bell Award—were asked if they would accept it if it were offered. Their answer was ‘no.’”
That was enough to dump an award going back more than a century.
Cornelia Phillips Spencer is best known for her efforts to reopen UNC after reconstruction. Upon hearing that the University would reopen in 1875, Spencer ran to the University bell tower and rang the bell in an effort to inform others of the good news. Hence the title: Spencer Bell Award.
Unfortunately, Spencer seems to have held the racial attitudes typical of 19th century whites.. An article in the January 7th News & Observer says that Spencer espoused “white supremacist attitudes.”
In 1875, most white southerners were prejudiced towards blacks. Not only were Spencer’s views common for the time, but those views were common among other important university figures.
Saunders Hall, for example, is named for William Saunders, a former member of the Board of Trustees and a former KKK leader. The names of Charles Brantley Aycock, former Governor of North Carolina, and Josephus Daniels, former editor of the News & Observer, grace a campus dormitory and the campus bookstore. Both men supported a 1900 amendment to the state constitution that barred black men from voting.
The case could be made that these building names make minority students feel uncomfortable and that they should be changed. That, however, would serve no purpose.
These names are a part of the University’s history. Erasing them would erase reminders of the lessons learned, good and bad, from this period of history.
If Chancellor Moeser’s perfectionist ideal were applied to all awards, few would be given.
Martin Luther King, for example, accomplished a great deal for black Americans and for America as a whole. However, he was a plagiarizer and adulterer. If an English professor or a devout minister who preached against adultery were awarded in the name of Martin Luther King, would they decline the award? Probably not. Most people know about the great amount of good that King did and understand that his positive actions should be celebrated.
Despite the arguments put forth by Spencer’s descendents, many in the university system were jubilant over Moeser’s decision. A January 12 editorial in The Daily Tar Heel summed up these feelings with the title “Courageous Choice.” It went on to claim that the decision “was about the integrity of the award…It was not a form of historical revisionism.”
Historical revisionism is when one revises history to suit their beliefs or needs. That is exactly what was done at UNC. Down the memory hole with Cornelia Spencer for not having held today’s understanding about race.
Moeser chose to highlight a single aspect of a woman’s worldview as more important than her good deeds. He chose to erase the past rather than understand it.
This decision is just one example of revisionist antics in higher education. In an effort to regulate the use of racially insensitive mascots, the NCAA recently asked UNC-Pembroke to conduct a study about its use of an American Indian logo and the school’s nickname, “the Braves.” They are required to submit the report by May 1.
This decision also shows a lack of historical understanding. UNC-Pembroke was founded in 1887 as the Croatan Normal School to educate American Indians. Today, the school has a large population of Lumbee Indians.
The school nickname is a tie to the past and a symbol of the present makeup of the school. However, the NCAA fails to recognize the school’s uniqueness. Sadly, such occurrences have become commonplace in higher education.
Fortunately for the UNC-Chapel Hill community, the Spencer conflict has recently moved toward resolution. After meeting with the Spencer-Love family in the effort to convince them not to withhold a large donation to the Center of the Study of the American South, Moeser formed a committee to investigate the university’s need for a replacement award. The new honor may be named after the entire Spencer family rather than Cornelia Phillips Spencer specifically.
Nevertheless, the revisionist forces within academia are on a rampage. Their pointless efforts to disconnect college campuses from their historical roots must be countered before universities are stripped of all their historical relevance.
Brian Sopp is an intern for the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Chapel Hill.