HOUMA, La. (The Houma Courier)- As a secondary education major, Ciera Eugene spent a lot of time in Nicholls State University’s Polk Hall – named after Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk.
The alumna recalled that walking through campus surrounded by symbols of a time when African Americans were subjugated felt like she was carrying “a heavy burden.”
To her, the building names were a form of glorification.
“I would have to go into a building that is named after someone who had no regard for my ancestors and people that looked like me,” Eugene told The Houma Courier. “It’s just kind of disheartening.”
On a campus where 18 percent of students are black and 30 percent are nonwhite, some are now pushing for a serious conversation about the names of some buildings and streets on campus.
Aside from buildings referencing Confederate generals, every street on Nicholls’ campus is a nod back to the time of slavery.
One year before the university was forced to integrate, the student government association voted in 1962 to name the streets after a plantation or plantation owner in Louisiana.
In April, Nicholls released a draft diversity action plan to collect feedback on 60 proposed recommendations to improve inclusion that a group of students, faculty, staff and alumni compiled over the course of a year.
In the plan, the student working group recommended for the school to formally start discussing the renaming of streets and buildings “associated with plantations and other culturally hurtful associations.”
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