Sites of Black Student Experience at UM
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By: Reagan Stone, Brianne Saunders, Constance Hartline, Grace Kaim, & Reagan Whittington
1. Vaught-Hemingway Stadium
Built in 1915, Vaught-Hemingway Stadium has been the home of the University of Mississippi’s football team for over a century. The stadium was named after Judge William Hemingway, a law professor and longtime chairman of the university’s Committee on Athletics in 1947, and later Johnny Vaught, the winningest coach in Ole Miss history who led the football team to three national championships.[1] While the stadium is regarded as a “place for the Ole Miss family to come together as one,” the stadium has been, and in many ways continues to be, a physical representation of the racist ideology and symbols that have been supported throughout the university’s history.
2. First African American Student and Football Player
James Meredith paved the way for other African Americans to apply for admission at the University of Mississippi and feel confident that their skin color will not determine if they get accepted or not. After Meredith, as more and more African Americans started applying to the university, confident that they would have a good education at the school of their choice whatever their skin color. Among these new students was football player Robert Jerry “Ben” Williams.
3. Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union
The Student Union is home to organizations like the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Associated Student Body (ASB). In addition to being home to multiple student organizations on campus, the Union is what sociologists refer to as a “counter-space”, or a space that serves the minority group and stands in opposition to the white, dominant group, on the university’s campus that has been deemed “integral to the African-American community.”[1]
4. Circle on Campus
Sunlight streams through the magnolia and oak trees, squirrels jump from one bed of pansies to the soft grass, and in the center of eight of the University of Mississippi’s academic buildings is 'The Circle'. This communal walking ground separates a one-way street going through campus and holds a plethora of University history. High in the center of the circle since 1962 is the flagpole which was adorned with the old Mississippi state flag. Accompanying the flagpole is a Confederate Monument, which was donated in 1906 by the Daughters of Confederacy along with a plaque commemorating fallen confederate soldiers. This Confederate Monument stood looking towards the entrance of the University, meeting every visitor, student, faculty, and family with its glassy gaze.
5. National Pan-Hellenic Council Greek Garden
The National Pan-Hellenic Council Greek Garden, or 'the Greek Gardens' as it is known to many students, was announced by the University of Mississippi in 2016 and unveiled in the Spring of the following year as a sort of gift from the University to it’s historically Black Greek organizations. The garden features monuments arranged in a circle, each one representing and paying tribute to each of the 9 NPHC fraternities and sororities, nicknamed “The Divine Nine.” Although it has served as a beautiful tribute to the NPHC, the Garden in no way makes up for the lack of useful community spaces for Black Greek Students on campus.
6. Silver Pond
In 2007, three former on-campus faculty houses that had been used as National Pan-Hellenic Council sorority houses were torn down to make room for construction of the Residential College. Since National Pan-Hellenic sororities had never owned housing at the University of Mississippi, the utilization of these empty buildings for this purpose was something that could have started a whole new chapter for Black Greek life at the university. Instead, all of that progress and hope was reversed and replaced with Silver Pond. Today, no NPHC fraternities or sororities have on-campus housing at the University of Mississippi and this absence makes a tangible mark on the students involved in these organizations.
7. Business Row
Business row is the aptly named road that the School of Business and School of Accountancy. However, the road also houses the University of Mississippi's personality elections every year. These elections include the Homecoming King and Queen as well as Miss Ole Miss and Mr. Ole Miss. Large signs for candidates are erected and volunteers offer stickers with the names of their preferred winner on them. But even this seemingly innocent process has a past.
8. The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College
The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College is home to one of the largest student body organizations on the University of Mississippi's campus. The Honors College website states that the idea started in 1952, before the university was integrated. The SMBHC as it is known today began in 1997 with a donation from Jim and Sally Barksdale.
