MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Middle Tennessee State University president Sidney McPhee has recommended that the name of a campus building honoring a controversial Confederate general be changed.
In a press statement released Thursday morning, McPhee said he has accepted the recommendation of the 17 member panel he formed last year to consider changing the name of Forrest Hall. The Hall is named for Confederate General, slave holder and founding KKK member Nathan Bedford Forrest.
McPhee launched the committee to consider the name change last year after nine members of a historically black church died in a mass shooting in South Carolina. The man arrested in connection with the murders is a self-described white supremacist.
McPhee doesn’t have the authority to change the name of the building unilaterally. He must now submit the request to MTSU’s governing agency the Tennessee Board of Regents. If the Regents approve the change, the decision will then go to the Tennessee Historical Commission.
Student and community protesters were regular fixtures at the committee meetings where the name change was discussed. Those protests were often loud and disruptive.
In his press statement, McPhee commented that he was “disappointed by the lack of civility.”