Introduction
Names on Emory University's campuses reflect the institution’s history. Appointed in 2020, the University Committee on Naming Honors reviewed new historic and contested historic names associated with buildings, spaces, programs, scholarships, and other honors named for individuals in Emory’s history. Atticus Greene Haygood, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, George Foster Pierce, and Robert Mearns Yerkes were among the historic Emory figures that were reviewed in the committee's 2021 report. This guide provides a number of resources on the life and times of select individuals that help to contextualize the university’s recent examination of its named spaces and programs.
Emory institutional history initiatives
- Tranforming Community Project websiteWeb archive capture of Emory's Transforming Community Project website. The TCP sought to "mobilize individuals in every sector of Emory University in a reflective, fact-driven engagement with the University’s history and current experiences of race, gender, sexuality and other forms of human difference at Emory and beyond."
- "Working to Transform Community at Emory University." Leslie Harris. The Public Historian 42, no. 4 (2020): 56-62.Article by former Emory Professor of History and co-lead of the Transforming Community Project on the work of the TCP.
- Conference: Slavery and the University (Atlanta, Feb 3-6, 2011)Website and program for 2011 conference held at Emory.
- Slavery and the University conference videoOverview of Slavery and the University conference featuring Gary Hauk and Leslie Harris
- Symposium: In the Wake of Slavery and Dispossession: Emory, Racism and the Journey Towards Restorative Justice (Atlanta, Sept 29-Oct 1, 2021)This symposium highlighted the ongoing efforts and research in the areas of slavery, dispossession, and restorative justice, with a focus on the legacy of racism and its enduring effects at Emory University. The sessions included creative interpretations and dialogue, with a primary focus on the perspectives of Black, Native American, and Indigenous peoples.
- In the Wake of Slavery and Disposession symposium recordingsYoutube playlist of all recorded symposium sessions.
- Slavery and the University by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. Brophy. 2019. Athens: University of Georgia Press.Book co-edited by former Emory Professor of History Leslie Harris featuring scholarship related to university institutional ties to slavery.
Scholarship on Emory's and other universities' connections to slavery
- The Accidental Slaveowner: Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American Family. Mark Auslander. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011.Mark Auslander's book examines role Emory trustees and professors played in enslavement in the institution's early history.
- Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities. Craig Steven Wilder. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013.Craig Steven Wilder's book examines the role institutions of higher education benefited from and helped sustain the institution of slavery.
- Slavery and the University by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. Brophy. 2019. Athens: University of Georgia Press.Book co-edited by former Emory Professor of History Leslie Harris comprised of scholarship from universities studying their institutional ties to slavery.
- Universities Studying Slavery consortium website"The Universities Studying Slavery (USS) consortium, created and led by the University of Virginia, represents a multi-institutional collaboration focused in sharing best practices and guiding principles about truth-telling projects addressing human bondage and racism in institutional histories." Emory was a participant in earlier programs that lead to the creation of the consortium, namely the Slavery and the University conference held a Emory in 2011.
Campus Photos
The following photos can be found in the Office of Alumni Publications photographs collection in Emory Digital Collections.
Law School (now Carlos Hall), Emory University, 1918
Postcard of Law School (formerly Lamar Law School), Emory University, undated
Longstreet and Means Hall, Emory University, 1955
Pierce Science Hall, Oxford College, 1903
