Wingate University, a private liberal arts college in North Carolina, has set up a committee to determine “next steps” after learning its namesake, Washington Manly Wingate, sold slaves a year before the Civil War.
The committee of faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees, town officials and others will discuss next steps, the university said in a statement. It’s unclear if those steps might include changing the school’s name.
“This truth hurts,” Wingate President Rhett Brown said in the statement. “It casts a shadow over our university, my alma mater, and is not in keeping with who we are today, what we value and how we strive to be more inclusive for the students who study here and the people who work here.”
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