Six buildings on the University of Richmond’s campus are being cleansed of the names of slaveholders and champions of segregation, including a building named in honor of the university’s founding president, the Rev. Robert Ryland.

“What a great day,” enthused Christopher Wiggins, a 2003 UR graduate and freelance journalist who has advocated for the name changes at the predominantly white private school. “It is beyond time that the University of Richmond takes this step forward toward healing the scars of its past.”

The university’s Board of Trustees, which last year balked at removing two controversial names, voted unanimously last Saturday to immediately change the buildings’ names. The dramatic action went largely unnoticed until Monday, when the university’s new president, Dr. Kevin F. Hallock, issued a letter to the campus community as workers began removing or covering the names of the now tarnished honorees on six buildings, most of whom were instrumental in the school’s development.

Topping the list of changes is Ryland Hall, an academic building on the National Register of Historic Places named for Rev. Ryland, a slaveholder who rented the people he purchased to the school and collected money for their labor. He was president of the school beginning in 1841. He also served as pastor of First African Baptist Church when state law required white pastors of Black churches.

One wing of the building is named for Rev. Ryland and the other wing for his nephew, Charles H. Ryland, who served as trustee, treasurer and librarian of the college from 1873 to 1914. The building now will be called the Humanities Building.

A dormitory named for the late Richmond newspaper editor, Confederate apologist and segregation crusader Douglas Southall Freeman, a longtime UR trustee and rector of the board, is now Residence Hall No. 3.

Mr. Freeman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Confederacy and its military leaders, spread his belief in racial segregation and the bogus science of racial purity or eugenics in his role as a newspaper editor and radio commentator.

Sarah Brunet Memorial Hall, honoring a slave-owning Baptist property owner and donor to the school, is returning to its original name, the Refectory, while Jeter Hall, named for another slave-owning school founder and minister, Jeremiah Bell Jeter, is now Residence Hall No. 1.

Puryear Hall, an academic building named for Bennet Puryear, a slave-owning UR chemistry teacher and faculty leader, is now Fountain Hall.

And another dormitory, James Thomas Jr. Memorial Hall, named for a slave-owning board president who saved the school from bankruptcy after the Civil War, is now Residence Hall No. 2.

“We recognize that not all members of our community will agree with these decisions,” stated Dr. Hallock, who took over last summer from the school’s first Black president, Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher, and is to be inaugurated Saturday, April 8, as the school’s 11th chief executive. “And we recognize that the university would not exist today without the efforts of some whose names we have removed.

“The board’s decision to adopt the principles and remove building names, while ultimately unanimous, was extremely challenging,” he continued. “The discussions were candid, thoughtful and constructive. In the end, the board concluded that the decisions outlined above are the best course of action.”

The decision to follow in the footsteps of Virginia State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and other schools to eliminate the names of those associated with racial bigotry represents a major triumph for UR’s Black Student Coalition and other student and faculty supporters, who got more then they asked for. For nearly two years, they had advocating for the board to change the names of just two buildings, Ryland and Freeman halls.

Two of the buildings that were renamed, Ryland Hall and Jeter Hall, are among the first five buildings that were constructed in 1911 when the university moved to the current campus off River Road.

According to Dr. Hallock, the decision to rename came after the board received and adopted the March 25 report from a nine-member commission the board created spelling out principles to guide decisions on naming buildings and removing or modifying building names.

The commission, which spent nearly a year and received comments from more than 7,500 people associated with UR, stated in its report that the board should eliminate the names of former slaveholders from buildings and also encouraged the board to remove the name or names of anyone who advocated for racial discrimination or racial segregation.

According to the commission, building names should reflect the values of the university, honor those who have made significant contributions, celebrate major milestones for the school or recognize excellence.

The board also adopted another recommendation and plans to create an advisory board to receive and review building name ideas and to make recommendations to the board on future name changes.