CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will remove references to William Kenan on a plaque at Kenan Memorial Stadium, replacing him with another William Kenan — his son. The university is distancing itself from William Rand Kenan Sr.'s involvement in an 1898 massacre targeting black North Carolinians.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports UNC Chancellor Carol Folt said in a Wednesday letter that the decision to change the honorific reference to focus on stadium donor William Rand Kenan Jr. followed consultation with the Kenan family.
The younger Kenan's name is on UNC's business school, but he wanted the stadium dedicated to his parents' memory.
Last month, sportswriter Craig Calcaterra reported the elder Kenan was the commander of "a white supremacist paramilitary force which massacred scores of black residents of Wilmington."
