Online petitioners want a University of Alabama building to be renamed for Harper Lee


An online petition to rename a University of Alabama building after alumna Harper Lee has garnered more than 1,800 signatures as of Monday morning. The To Kill a Mockingbird author died Friday at age 89. Petition author Jessica Hauger called on the university to change the name of the English department building from Morgan Hall:
Upon the death of Harper Lee, who attended the University of Alabama from 1945-1949, the University has an amazing chance to show our support for racial equality, as well as to honor the legacy generally of a woman who promoted kindness and empathy for all. Lee was doubtless the University's greatest contribution to literature, and it would be more than fitting for our English building to bear her name, which reflects so much more accurately the values of the University of Alabama, than that of white supremacist John Tyler Morgan. [Change.org]
Morgan was a U.S. senator, Confederate general, and a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon.
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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