At the heart of Alabama’s campus lies the Quad. And at the heart of the Quad lies the UDC Boulder.

The Boulder, donated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1914, sits at the base of the two flag poles that hold up the American and the Alabama State flags. An invisible axis runs through the center of campus, extending from Gorgas Library at one end to the President’s Mansion at the other, with Denny Chimes, as well as the Boulder, situated between the two. This axis is the nexus of power on campus, and right in the middle of it is the UDC Boulder.

The UDC Boulder is important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its donor. The United Daughters of the Confederacy has a loose relationship with the truth and historical accuracy, which is demonstrated mainly by their celebration of the Lost Cause narrative of the Civil War, which falsely claims that slavery was not a main factor in secession. This is demonstrably false, in that the seceding states wrote Declarations of Secession which clearly outline the reasons that they decided to secede. Slavery was the largest factor.

But the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s disremembering and falsifying of history is right at home on the University of Alabama’s campus, which makes the location of the UDC Boulder so symbolically significant.

One obvious physical manifestation of this tendency to gloss over history is right behind the President’s Mansion. The slave quarters at the President’s Mansion are still standing, and have been renovated to be used for various purposes, like as a shed, a catering facility, a garage, a storage area, and a plant nursery. The use of these buildings as anything other than museums is disrespectful to the memory of the people that The University of Alabama and past University presidents enslaved, but the University acts as though they have no historical significance.

Additionally, The University of Alabama is an aberration among major American institutions, in that it does not have a department dedicated to African American Studies. Although the major and minor exist within the Gender and Race Studies Department, the University does not offer graduate programs in African American Studies. This campus was at the heart of slavery, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement, yet the University does not feel it is important to put resources into African American Studies.

Even more appalling is the scarcity of black students and faculty on campus. Only 11 percent of the students on campus are black or African American, according to The University of Alabama’s website, yet 27 percent of Alabama residents are black or African American, according to the US Census Bureau. The situation for black faculty on campus is even more dire, with only 5.7 percent of faculty at the University identifying as black or African American, as reported by 
the University.

In addition to these statistics, The University of Alabama’s continuing support of white supremacists, klansmen, eugenicists and slaveholders, signaled by an unwillingness to remove their names from buildings on campus, is abhorrent. By refusing to remove these people’s names from buildings on campus, the University reminds black students, faculty and staff daily that this campus was not built for them. This is disgraceful. It is shameful. And it falls in line perfectly with the narrative of the UDC Boulder, which lies at the center of it all.

I say that the Boulder, the slave quarters, the lack of an African American Studies Department, the statistics, and the building names are all cut from the same cloth because they all choose to ignore race in favor of a more palatable, ahistorical (white) narrative. That is unacceptable, especially at a public institution of higher learning, where our goal should be truth and education for all.

Perhaps it seems that I have overblown the importance of the UDC Boulder, and maybe I have. But in my mind, there is no better symbol of what this University truly is than this one. And that is deeply troubling. It is my sincere hope that the University of Alabama will change course, and stand, finally, on the right side of history. They could begin by removing the UDC Boulder and putting it in a museum, where it belongs. Perhaps there could be no more perfect symbolic move.

Many thanks to Dr. Hilary Green for her work bringing the connections that UA’s campus has to slavery to light, and to Dr. John Giggie, for introducing the concept of the axis of power in UA’s campus to me.

Isabelle Beauregard is a sophomore majoring in political science and African-American studies. Her column runs biweekly.