UO to rename Deady Hall amid nationwide protests
The University of Oregon’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to rename Deady Hall on June 24. The decision comes after board member Andrew Colas requested an emergency vote on June 4 to consider the change, as well as demands from the UO community.
The campus’ oldest building will be temporarily renamed University Hall until the process for official renaming begins. Nationwide protests against racism and police brutality toward Black people sparked the conversation regarding Deady Hall’s name.
The board could not take formal action on Colas’ request during their June 4 meeting, due to Oregon’s Public Meetings Law, but it held a special meeting to discuss the eventual renaming of Deady Hall.
“I want to acknowledge the board and President Schill for listening, taking the time to understand the importance of the issue, and for their decisive action,” said Colas, who is the only African American member on the board.
Deady Hall has been named after Matthew Deady since 1893. Deady was Oregon’s first federal judge and the UO’s first president of the Board of Regents. He was a supporter of slavery, saying once that African Americans are “just as much property as horses, cattle, or land.”
“I cannot accept a person that would see me and believe that I am as good as a horse, cattle, or a piece of land,” said Colas.
Colas called on the board members to take “firm action” in their meeting earlier this month, especially in the wake of Floyd’s death and the protests around the country.
“I hope every single one of you will align with me in understanding that we have to be the university that takes a stand on this,” Colas said.
UO President Michael Schill wrote a letter to the community recommending that the name of the building be removed.
“It is now apparent to me that, as long as Matthew Deady’s name remains in a place of honor on our campus, our students of color will feel that they are not valued; that this institution is not their institution,” Schill said in an email to the UO community.
In 2015, the UO’s Black Student Task Force submitted a list of demands to the university, including requests to rename both Deady Hall and Dunn Hall, which was named after Ku Klux Klan leader Frederic Stanley Dunn.
Dunn Hall has since been renamed to Unthank Hall, but UO President Michael Schill decided against renaming Deady Hall. Schill appointed three historians to create a report on the lives of Deady and Dunn.
“In my view, the facts set forth in the historian’s report do not support overturning the presumption against denaming Deady Hall,” Schill said in his 2017 announcement.
Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, dozens of cities around the country protested in the streets, calling for justice and police reform.
The racist history of the United States began to be unraveled, including calls from the community to change the Mississippi state flag, to tear down historic monuments, and to defund or even abolish the police system.
Due to these conversations, several figures in the UO community called for the school to change the name of Deady Hall, including Oregon football defensive backs Jevón Holland and Verone McKinley III.
In response to a tweet from the UO’s official Twitter regarding actions against “hatred, racism, and violence,” Holland said, “Start by changing the name of Deady Hall. Who’s named after Matthew Deady. President of the Oregon Constitutional Convention of 1857. He advocated for discrimination against Chinese and Black immigrants, as well as in favor for Slavery In Oregon.”
McKinley tweeted, “Just because something may be removed from being displayed does not mean to destroy it. Keep that history somewhere to show how far we’ve come and how far we have to go still.”
UO alum Quin Hanyon created a petition on Change.org to change the name of Deady Hall, gathering more than 2,000 signatures in five days.
“It’s time our campus reflects a brighter tomorrow and not remember the sins of its past,” Hanyon said.
Amid discussions of removing monuments of figures with racist backgrounds, protesters in Eugene toppled two statues at the UO campus on June 13. The Pioneer and the Pioneer Mother statues were knocked off their pedestals; The Pioneer was dragged from Allen Hall to the steps of Johnson Hall.
“The statues have both been put into storage,” Schill said. “Neither statue will go back to their previous places of prominence on campus.”
As the UO community rallies to tackle racism and injustice against Black people, the renaming of Deady Hall is a step in the right direction, according to Colas.
“This is the first step of many for the University of Oregon to strengthen and support diversity and inclusion on our campus,” Colas said.