Henderson County (May 25, 2021) - RALEIGH Could an obscure historical discovery force Wingate University and the town to change names? That question is roiling Wingate, a small Union County town 30 miles southeast of Charlotte.
Henderson County (May 25, 2021) - RALEIGH Could an obscure historical discovery force Wingate University and the town to change names? That question is roiling Wingate, a small Union County town 30 miles southeast of Charlotte.
Hatch informed Wingate that Wake Forest found that Manly Wingate, whom the school is named for, had ties to slavery.
In 2018, WFU asked university staff to learn whether any of their buildings or statues were named after people with racist or other complicated backgrounds that could be viewed as scandalous today.
WFU sociology professor Joseph Soares found that “every president of Wake Forest until the Civil War had enslaved human beings under him.” That included Manly Wingate.
Wake Forest recently announced that its Wingate Hall will be renamed to “May 7, 1860 Hall” to memorialize the day the institution sold 16 people at a slave auction under Wingate’s presidency.