CLOSE Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos discusses why the university is renaming Confederate Memorial Hall. Vanderbilt University 
 
 Buy Photo Workers cover up the name on the exterior of Confederate Memorial Hall at Vanderbilt University on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016. Vanderbilt will repay an 83-year-old donation, allowing it to remove the Confederate name from the residence hall. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean)Buy Photo Story Highlights Confederate Memorial Hall opened 1935 with support from United Daughters of the Confederacy. 
 
 Vanderbilt first sought to change the name in 2002. 
 
 Starting in 2005, the university began referring to the building as Memorial Hall. 
 
 To change the name, Vanderbilt raised $1.2 million to repay the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 
 
 Vanderbilt University will repay an 83-year-old donation in order to remove from a residence hall what its leader called "a symbol and a reminder of racism, slavery and a very, very bloody Civil War." 
 
 
 
 Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos made the announcement Monday, capping a 14-year effort to rename Confederate Memorial Hall. The building, which has had that name etched into the stone above its entrance since it opened in 1935, stands in the heart of the university's freshman commons, and has frequently spurred debate about the university's attitude toward an increasingly diverse student body. 
 
 In an interview with The Tennessean, Zeppos — who arrived on campus as a law professor in 1987 — said he had long been in favor of changing the building's name. 
 
 "It's a symbol that is, for many people, deeply offensive and painful," Zeppos said in the interview. "And to walk past it or to have to live in that space is really something that I just don't think is acceptable." 
 
 The United Daughters of the Confederacy originally donated $50,000 in 1933 toward the building’s construction and naming rights in order to honor Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War. 
 
 Vanderbilt previously attempted to rename the building Memorial Hall in 2002, but the Tennessee Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy sued to keep the original name. A Tennessee appeals court ruled in 2005 that Vanderbilt could remove “Confederate” from the inscription only after it had returned the donation at its current value. 
 
 Anonymous donors recently gave the university the $1.2 million needed for that purpose; the Vanderbilt Board of Trust authorized the move this summer. 
 
 Doug Jones, the Nashville attorney who represented the Daughters of the Confederacy against Vanderbilt, called the move "a real slam on the history of our country." 
 
 “All it was was just a simple monument for the boys in Tennessee that died” in the Civil War, Jones said, adding that the name was not connected with slavery. “We think rewriting history’s just terrible. And I think it’s a very sad day for a school with that kind of reputation to be condoning that." 
 
 Universities across the country have faced similar decisions as they re-evaluated the implications of their buildings' names. Students and officials at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro have spent months pushing to remove the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan, from a campus building. MTSU and the Tennessee Board of Regents approved the change, which now goes before a state panel. 
 
 Zeppos flatly rebuffed the criticism that changing the name of a residence hall would compromise the university's approach to its long and complicated history. 
 
 "We are not saying this is not part of Vanderbilt's history," he said. "I think we teach history by how we talk about these events. 
 
 "I don't think that that (name) was really teaching anyone history." 
 
 The longstanding effort to rename the residence hall took on renewed urgency over the past couple of years, as universities across Tennessee and the country grappled with the shadow of racism and slavery on their campuses. At Vanderbilt, founded in 1873 just eight years after the Civil War ended, the name change follows a series of changes made over the past year to address diversity, including the addition of a chief diversity officer to the university's leadership team. 
 
 In 2005, Vanderbilt officially began referring to the building as Memorial Hall, although the word Confederate remained on its facade. Students, faculty and high-ranking administrators argued passionately to remove the word at a town hall on the subject last fall. 
 
 Ariana Fowler, president of Vanderbilt Student Government, praised the university leadership for the decision to formally rename the residence hall. 
 
 “This action demonstrates the administration's attentiveness to student needs and concerns, as well as sets a great precedent for advocating on behalf of those who may feel marginalized on our campus,” Fowler said in the university statement. “This is an excellent next step in the direction of becoming an institution that not only admits diverse students, but ensures their care and support — one who is eager to eliminate any barriers that may stand in the way of such a goal.” 
 
 Zeppos said the decision to remove the mention of the Confederacy from the building spoke to the courage of students, faculty and staff who spoke out against it for years. 
 
 "I hope that they feel as if they've made a big difference in Vanderbilt and in Vanderbilt's history themselves," he said. "It hopefully says we have listened, we have made changes. But I don't think we should assume that our work is completed in any way." 
 
 Crews were already working Monday night to cover the name over the building’s entrance. 
 
 Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets. 
 
 Vanderbilt University began referring to Confederate Memorial Hall as Memorial Hall in 2005. The year was wrong in an earlier version of this story.​ 
 
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 CLOSE The Southern Baptist Convention voted to urge its congregations to stop displaying Confederate flags. The church is by far the largest in the South.Video provided by Newsy Newslook 
 
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 Read or Share this story: http://tnne.ws/2bkJwgO ||||| FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, that it has struck an agreement to pay $1.2 million to United Daughters... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, that it has struck an agreement to pay $1.2 million to United Daughters... (Associated Press) FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced... (Associated Press) 
 
 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will pay more than a million dollars to remove an inscription containing the word "Confederate" from one of its campus dorms. 
 
 The private university has referred to the Confederate Memorial Hall simply as "Memorial Hall" since 2002, but was blocked in court from changing the name chiseled on the building because it was constructed with the help of a $50,000 gift from the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933. 
 
 Under the agreement, Vanderbilt will pay $1.2 million, the equivalent of the gift made 83 years ago, to the organization's Tennessee chapter. In exchange, the chapter will relinquish its naming rights to the building. 
 
 "You can memorialize individuals without taking sides in the bloodiest war that was fought over the divisive issues of slavery and equality that we're still struggling with today for those young people coming onto campus," Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said in a phone interview. 
 
 The money has been pledged by anonymous donors, and Zeppos said the school chooses to focus on "moving Vanderbilt forward" rather than on what projects the Daughters of the Confederacy will spend the funds on, especially in light of a new Tennessee law that makes it more difficult to remove Confederate symbols and statues from public places. 
 
 "The donors and I and others understand that this donation will go to another organization, but this is a very positive step for Vanderbilt," Zeppos said. 
 
 The Daughters of the Confederacy did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. 
 
 About 30 miles to the southeast, Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro wants to remove the name of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from one of its buildings. The public higher education system overseeing the school endorsed the change last month, but the proposal faces a tougher hurdle when it reaches the Tennessee Historical Commission. 
 
 Under the "Tennessee Heritage Protection Act" passed earlier this year, it now takes a vote of at least two-thirds of the commission to approve changing or removing historical markers. That's an increase from the previous requirement of a simple majority vote. 
 
 Calls to remove Confederate imagery from public places multiplied across the South after last year's slaying of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. A white man espousing racist views and who posed in a photo with a Confederate flag has been charged with murder in the killings. 
 
 Following the church shooting, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said he supported removing the Capitol bust of Forrest, who is famous for his exploits as a Confederate cavalry general and amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader in Memphis before the Civil War. 
 
 After the defeat of the Confederacy, the newly formed Ku Klux Klan elected Forrest its honorary grand wizard, though he publicly denied being involved. Two years later, he ordered the Klan to disband because of its members' increasing violence. 
 
 The Forrest bust remains in the lobby between the House and Senate chambers at the state Capitol.
– In an attempt to bury a relic of its past, Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will pay more than $1 million to remove the word "Confederate" from one of its dorms, the Tennessean reports. Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos called the inscription on Confederate Memorial Hall "a reminder of racism, slavery and a very, very bloody Civil War." The Nashville university's efforts to change the name in 2002 were halted when the United Daughters of the Confederacy sued. The group’s $50,000 donation in 1933 helped build the dorm. A state appeals court ruled the building could be renamed Memorial Hall only after Vanderbilt gave the United Daughters back their money—$1.2 million in today’s dollars. The university has the cash, thanks to a raft of anonymous contributors who wanted the tie to America’s painful past broken for good. "It's a symbol that is, for many people, deeply offensive and painful," Zeppos told the Tennessean. "And to walk past it or to have to live in that space is really something that I just don't think is acceptable.” Yet tampering with Confederate imagery remains controversial, and a new state law makes it harder to do so, the AP reports. Efforts by Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro to remove the name of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from a building could face a tougher climb under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which now requires a vote of two-thirds of the state’s Historical Commission rather than a simple majority.