Create a free Diverse: Issues In Higher Education account to continue reading

NYC Mayor: Yale Should Drop Name of Slavery Defender

NEW YORK ― New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is siding with his son who wants Yale University to drop the name of a U.S. vice president who defended slavery from a residential hall.

The Democratic mayor and Yale alumnus told reporters on Monday he “absolutely” favors stripping the name of John C. Calhoun from the college dorm where his son, Dante de Blasio, currently resides.

De Blasio’s son is a member of the school’s Black Student Union and has been participating in protests against racial insensitivity.

Calhoun was a prominent slave-owning politician from South Carolina and served in the U.S. Senate and as the seventh U.S. vice president from 1825 to 1832.

A New Track: Fostering Diversity and Equity in Athletics
American sport has always served as a platform for resistance and has been measured and critiqued by how it responds in critical moments of racial and social crises.
Read More
A New Track: Fostering Diversity and Equity in Athletics