MONROE, La. — Students at the University of Louisiana Monroe are starting a petition to rename a building on campus.
The ULM students say their research dates back to the 1960s and they just want to see change on their campus.
“I reached out to NAACP and Feminists in Action at ULM and we decided to come up with a solution to rename Walker Hall,” said Cameron Ott, President of ULM Collge Democrats.
“I want to see a step away from segregation and the dark history behind this building and into the promises that ULM has made to us this summer,” said Allison Newton, Student at ULM.
“I really hope that ULM definitely sits down and faces this issue head-on. We haven’t heard from them yet, but we hope to hear from them soon,” said Ott.
“We found that George T. Walker, the President at the time was very resistant to integration and there had to be a lawsuit filed against him by Sarah Louise McCoy, the first admitted black student. And he made public comment demeaning black students,” said Newton.
“This doesn’t mean that we hate the University or that we don’t respect that university and administration. It means that we love this university and we want to see it do better. we want to see it be a leader and other institutions follow that,” said Newton.
“I would love to see Dr. Don Smith to be paid hommage by this building, he was the first african american student to graduate from ULM or NLU at the time in 1967 and I think it would speak volumes,” said Stone.
The petition the students started had only been up for 24 hours and already had nearly 500 signatures. The students we spoke to say they’re hopeful for the future of ULM.
