Washington and Lee University Told to Keep Name Despite Confederate Link

Washington and Lee University should not be rebranded even though it is named in part after Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army who also served as its president, a panel studying the issue has concluded.

"Changing the name would not change the institution's history or perfect its culture and runs the risk of denying history rather than learning from it," the Virginia school's Commission on Institutional History and Community said in a report.

"The recommendation to retain the name is not passive. Rather, the commission thought that, at this point, efforts are better spent on concrete recommendations about how best to teach and present the university's history.

"At this time, the commission believes that W&L can maintain its namesakes while being a relevant, ethical and vibrant 21st-century institution."

The commission also recommended that the names of the university's sports teams — "the Generals" — not be changed.

However, depictions of Lee on campus should be carefully presented, with "only portraits of Lee that portray him in civilian attire, not as a Confederate general" being displayed, the commission said.

It also said the school should "immediately" change the name of a campus building called Robinson Hall after school benefactor John Robinson, "whose gift to the university included enslaved persons. The building itself was financed through the sale of some of those persons."

The recommendations will now be studied by the school's Board of Trustees, and its faculty, staff, students and alumni.

The 325-acre campus in Lexington was founded in 1749 as Augusta Academy, renamed Liberty College in 1776, and then Washington College in 1796 after President George Washington saved it from going broke.

Shortly after Lee's surrender to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant which ended the Civil War, Lee served as the school's president for five years. In 1870, it was renamed Washington and Lee University.

According to The College Fix, the university grappled with its slavery link in 2014 when it removed several Confederate flags near a statue of Lee.

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