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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Organizations Push Yale to Change College Name

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Friday, October 28, 2016   

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A coalition of 45 organizations is staging a protest today, calling on Yale University to rename its Calhoun College. The college is named for John C. Calhoun, who served as Vice President of the United States under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, in the 1820s and early 1830s.

But Megan Fountain, a Yale graduate and organizer of the protest, said it's Calhoun's other role in American history that is behind the demand for a name change.

"Calhoun supported the rights of slaveholders to keep people enslaved, and argued that slavery was a good thing," she said.

Yale President Peter Salovey denied a similar request earlier this year, saying the university would keep the name "to confront, teach, and learn from the history of slavery in the United States."

Fountain disagrees with that reasoning.

"Having a college that enshrines one of our country's most ardent supporters of white supremacy is not an effective way to teach people about the history of slavery, or to correct the wrongs of slavery," she explained.

And Fountain pointed out that it isn't just a name on the building. This summer, a stained-glass window that depicted slaves happily picking cotton was smashed in an act of civil disobedience by an employee of the college dining halls.

"He's worked there for many years, and for him to see stained-glass windows that show slavery as a beautiful thing was an insult to his dignity," she added.

The protesters have compiled a list of names they would prefer to see on the building, names Fountain said would honor those who resisted slavery rather than promoting it.


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