Washington Next? : Disputed Monuments, Honorees, and Symbols on Campus

On a warm summer evening in June of 2015, a young man wandered into a bible study at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina - one of the oldest predominantly Black churches in the South. For more than a century, Mother Emanuel served as a sacred ground for Black spiritual growth and leadership. Greeted with open arms, the guest joined the group in studying the word of God. After an hour-long Bible study, the visitor revealed his true intentions: "to kill as many Black people as possible." The self-proclaimed white supremacist unleashed a hail of gunfire in the church, killing nine people and injuring several others. He walked out of the church as calmly as he walked in. The next day the shooter was arrested without incident and expressed no remorse. Investigators discovered the shooter was radicalized on the internet and worshiped Confederate ideology.

The tragedy shook the nation, ending the decades-long dispute over the Confederate flag's appropriate commemoration. Decades of requests to confront systemic and structural racism were reignited. Since the end of legal segregation, college students have raised concerns about the campus memorial landscape and institutional responses to racism. In 2015, college students took matters into their own hands. Dozens of universities, including Yale University, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, and many more, scrambled to respond to student protests. From 2015 to 2020, hundreds of controversial memorials were removed or relocated, and many more were challenged.