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Sonja Haynes Stone Center
Today the Sonja Haynes Stone Center, named after Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone, is a hub for Black Culture and History. Dr. Haynes Stone was an outspoken advocate for a free-standing cultural center for African American students, and the center honors her legacy today by promoting appreciation for African American culture as well as furthering academic understanding of African American diaspora culture. Other campus buildings previously named after Confederates, enslavers, and other White Supremacists are in the process of having their names changed. The Student Stores and Student Affairs buildings names were changed in 2020. The process to name Hamilton Hall after scholar, activist, attorney, and historian Pauli Murray is still underway. On campus today, there are a variety of fraternities/sororities, activist clubs, and social groups. The Black Student Movement has been an important part of student life since its founding in 1967. Black Ink is a student newspaper created as part of BSM in 1969 as an alternative to the Daily Tar Heel. Community Justice, Abolition, and Antiracism is a student-led coalition centered around anti-racism and abolition both on campus and the local community.
Acknowledgement of the Exploitation of Black Labor and Racial Injustice on UNC’s Campus:
We would like to acknowledge the history and present of White Supremacy on UNC Chapel Hill’s campus. UNC was built to further the education of white men and expand White Supremacy on the backs of enslaved African American people. The University was founded through the dispossession of indigenous folks in an act of settler colonialism, relying on enslaved labor whose exploitation was crucial to the building of University buildings and facilities. The profits gained by the sale and escheatment of human beings were critical to the success of UNC as we know it today. Furthermore, Black undergraduate students were not admitted to the University until 1955 with the first being Leroy Frasier, John Lewis Brandon and Ralph Frasier. Karen Parker became the first Black woman undergraduate student in 1963. Hortense McClinton became the first Black faculty member hired in 1966. We honor Carolina’s Black Pioneers as well as the students and staff who further their legacy today.