Buildings at Virginia State University renamed for Black women

ETTRICK, Va. (AP) — Four buildings at an historically Black university in Virginia named for white men with links to the Jim Crow era or to the Confederacy have been renamed for Black women.

Virginia State University announced the new names on Friday. That was five months after the original names were taken down.

Replacement names were considered by a committee.

One building had been named for staunch segregationist Harry Byrd Sr., a former governor and U.S. senator. Now it’s named for Otelia Howard, who was a school English teacher in the 1920s and ’30s.

Another building had been named for a Confederate officer.

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