Regents name two UGA buildings after barrier-breaking Black students

The Georgia Board of Regents on Tuesday approved the University of Georgia’s proposal to name two campus buildings after Black graduates who made history at the school.

The university’s science library will be named in memory of Shirley Mathis McBay, the first Black student to earn a doctorate from UGA in 1966. McBay, who became a math professor at Spelman College and championed the need for diversity in the STEM fields, died two weeks ago. She was 86.

The board approved UGA’s plan to name a 525-unit student residential hall under construction after Harold A. Black, Mary Blackwell Diallo and Kerry Rushin Miller, the first Black students to enroll as freshmen and complete their undergraduate degrees. Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of their enrollment.

From left to right: Kerry Rushin Miller, Mary B. Diallo, and Harold A. Black, take part in a conversation on stage titled “Conversations with the Class of 1966: UGA’s First Black Freshman Graduates” in 2017 in the UGA Chapel in Athens, Georgia. (Photo Credit: University of Georgia.)

The 19-member Board of Regents was criticized by several groups after its decision last month to not move forward with an advisory group’s recommendations to rename more than six dozen buildings and colleges on public university campuses statewide. Most of those buildings are named after slave owners and segregationists.

The board also approved Georgia Southern University’s request Tuesday to name a roadway under construction Jack and Ruth Ann Lane after Jack Hill, a state senator who died last year, and his wife, Ruth Ann.