UW-Madison to remove 70-ton boulder some view as reminder of campus' racist past

quote:

---

UW-Madison will remove a 70-ton boulder from the heart of campus Friday morning following calls over the past year from students of color who view the rock as a symbol of the university’s racist past.

Chamberlin Rock, located on top of Observatory Hill, is named in honor of Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, a geologist and former university president. But for some students of color on campus, the rock represents a painful history of discrimination.


The boulder was referred to as a “n——-head” — a commonly used expression in the 1920s to describe any large dark rock — at least once in a 1925 Wisconsin State Journal story.

---

quote:

---

The university estimated this winter that removal would cost between $30,000 and $75,000 — an amount that officials said at the time would be covered with private or gift funds. McGlone said a more recent cost estimate will be available Friday.

The Black Student Union led the call to remove the rock last summer. Nalah McWhorter, the group’s president and a UW-Madison senior, said in an interview this summer that the demands to remove the boulder had been around even before she arrived on campus three years ago.

“I’m grateful that we have had the opportunity to do this and that the rock will be removed,” she said. “It was our demand, and it was something that we put all the work in for.”

---