Carolina Housing and the Residence Hall Association (RHA) are excited for the announcement of the official renaming of Residence Hall One, previously known as Aycock Residence Hall.
Carolina Housing and the Residence Hall Association (RHA) have been dedicated to addressing Residence Hall names so they better align with the department's mission to create a space that is: "Safe, Inclusive, and Supportive." During Spring 2021, we came together to form the Residence Hall Renaming Committee. April 9, 2021, we released a statement recommending that Residence Hall One be renamed in recognition of an individual identifying as a woman.
It is an honor to have our Residence Hall renamed after Hortense McClinton, the first Black professor hired at Carolina!
For more information about McClinton, please visit the resources listed below.
The Well Article Excerpt
A residence hall and the Student Affairs office building will bear the names of two trailblazing Tar Heels: Hortense McClinton and Henry Owl, the University announced today.
Upon the recommendation of Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz, the University’s Board of Trustees honored McClinton and Owl with a vote Nov. 4 to add their names to two buildings whose names were removed in July 2020. McClinton Residence Hall replaces the former Aycock Residence Hall, while Henry Owl Building is the new name for the former Carr Building.
McClinton was the first Black professor hired at Carolina, accepting an appointment with the UNC School of Social Work in 1966 and retiring in 1984. At age 103, she now lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. The committee that nominated her for the honor pointed out that McClinton “overcame the obstacles of a Jim Crow society and distinguished herself as a pioneer in desegregating the social work profession.” She was also “lauded nationally for teaching the knowledge and modeling the skills that prepare social workers to practice ‘without racial and cultural basis,’” the committee wrote.
“I am very much honored. I’m glad they’re doing it before I died because I am 103,” McClinton said. Growing up in an all-Black community in Oklahoma and in a family who valued education formed the person she became. “My father went to college. My grandmother went to college. And now there have been six generations of us that have been to college. I appreciate everything that has happened in my life. I have been a lucky girl.”
Source: The Well - Names of two Tar Heel trailblazers selected for buildings