I quickly embarked on a career in academia that would have made her proud. In my capacity at Elizabeth City State University and then the University of Alabama, I taught Julian S. Carr’s 1913 Silent Sam dedication speech, where he boasted of whipping “a negro wench until her skirt hung in shreds,” alongside Shelby Eden Dawkins-Law’s 2015 poem contemplating “What to the Negro Wench is University Day?” I also introduced my students to Murray, her UNC rejection, and subsequent activism for social justice as a queer Black woman. They came to understand her “subtle strength,” described in the 1939 poem. They also learned how she and others rejected the continued legacy of the white supremacist logics at the segregated school, imagined a different future, and worked tirelessly to remake a just, diverse, and inclusive campus landscape and culture. In the process, we discussed the ongoing effects of institutional complicity from not reckoning with its racist past that oppressed Murray, me, and other students of color, past and present.4
Thus, the department chairs’ announcement of renaming Hamilton Hall after Pauli Murray struck me as a fitting tribute. J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton built the archival machinery that contributed to what W. E. B. Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson called the propaganda of American history. This archival impulse actively encouraged the silencing of African American historical contributions and sustained white supremacist policies, whitewashed narratives, and inequity at the campus, region, and nation. During my tenure and beyond, scholars, alumni, and those in training sought to dismantle these racist rationales that had denied one potential Tar Heel graduate student. The groundswell of activism ultimately brought down Saunders Hall, Silent Sam, and the 2015 moratorium on building names. These department chairs, some of whom I encountered as a doctoral student, heard Murray’s poetic pleas for a more inclusive campus community. By claiming Murray for their building name, they have atoned for UNC’s rejection of Murray’s admission and moved the racial reconciliation process forward. I, therefore, proudly await seeing her name firmly enshrined in pale yellow brick and stone. Pauli Murray shall endure, indeed.5