Action 3: Understand Our History

Work to understand the realities of our history and any linkage to systemic racism. Recent Progress
  • Meredith is working with other institutions in pursuing the truth of their histories through the Universities Studying Slavery (USS) initiative. This group of scholars is working not only to understand history and its contexts, but also seeks to understand and dismantle the ways that racism continues to work in higher education. Most recently, Meredith scholars involved in this project attended the USS spring meeting in March 2023 and participated in a panel discussion of the Locating Slavery’s Legacies Database. 
  • Faculty and students are creating an archive of oral history interviews with politically active women of color from across the state and region. Partner schools for this project are Shaw University, Guilford College, Johnson C. Smith University, Flagler College (Florida), Tuskegee University (Alabama), and Benedict College (South Carolina).
  • During the 2022-23 academic year, the Black Student Union and the Arts & Humanities Common Experience co-sponsored a De-Lux Brunch series of presentations and discussions of Meredith College history and traditions.
  • Voices of Change Political Institute, an initiative facilitated by Meredith College and its community partners to elevate and support the political engagement of Black women and women of color, is a new partnership of Meredith College, Advance NC, and the North Carolina Black Alliance. The Institute is part of a multiyear project funded by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and the Gilder-Lehrman Center at Yale University. Meredith College hosted the Voices of Change: Contested Citizenship Conference in September 2022. 
  • The Marketing Department, Archives staff, and History Department revised the College timeline to present a more comprehensive picture of its history, one that includes the contributions of students, faculty, staff, and alumnae of color.
  • The Board of Trustees, which is the exclusive authority on renaming decisions, uses the process developed by the Task Force on Historical Context and Naming at Meredith when making decisions to change the names of any buildings, programs, or other entities at Meredith. As part of this initiative, the Board announced decisions to rename Lux Hall (April 2022) and to change the name of Carroll Hall to the Student Health and Wellness Center (March 2023). The task force, which included trustees, alumnae, and employees, was diverse by race, gender, and age.