UMW Renames Building After Civil Rights Leader James Farmer

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — The University of Mary Washington's Board of Visitors voted Friday to change the name of Trinkle Hall to James Farmer Hall. James L. Farmer Jr., a major figure in the nation's civil rights movement, spent the latter part of his career as a professor of history at UMW.

The university chose to find a new name for Trinkle Hall, which is named for a former governor of Virginia, Elbert Lee Trinkle, who was "an active proponent of eugenics and segregation," UMW said Friday. The university said it wanted the new name to provide an opportunity for celebration, positive growth and affirmative identity of the campus.

“I commend the action of the Board today,” UMW Rector Heather Crislip said in a statement. “We are talking about one of the most beautiful and iconic buildings on campus, and its name should reflect our community and our values.”

The former Trinkle Hall was built in 1940 as the college’s library. When Simpson Library opened in 1989, Trinkle Hall was turned into classrooms. The building, now called James Farmer Hall, houses the Department of Classics, Philosophy, Religion; the Department of Mathematics; the Department of Computer Science; and the College of Education’s Fredericksburg campus classes.

In 2017, UMW’s Campus Environment Presidential Ad Hoc Committee was charged with evaluating campus art, monuments, and other representations of the university’s history and community in order to ensure that Mary Washington is a welcoming environment for all.

The committee prepared a 74-page report that was presented to the Board of Visitors last November. In the report, committee noted that certain works of art and artifacts on campus presented a one-dimensional interpretation of UMW’s history. The board unanimously voted to endorse all 17 of the committee’s recommendations for addressing the issues, with the greatest urgency placed upon identifying a new name for Trinkle Hall

Born in 1920 in Marshall, Texas, into a family of educators, Farmer co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which organized several protests of segregated facilities in the 1940s and 1950s.

CORE, under Farmer’s leadership, led the 1961 Freedom Rides into several Southern states, including Virginia, in a nonviolent test of Supreme Court rulings that outlawed segregation in interstate transportation and bus terminals. Farmer, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and others organized the 1963 March on Washington.

In the 1980s, Farmer moved to Spotsylvania County and taught at Mary Washington College. His teaching tenure was from 1985 to 1998, the same year Farmer was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died in July 1999.

UMW memorialized Farmer with a bust outside what was formerly known as Trinkle Hall. In commemoration this year of the 100th anniversary of his birth, UMW formed a James Farmer Legacy committee, of which the late Rep. John Lewis served as honorary chair.

Trinkle served as governor of Virginia from 1922 to 1926. "While many of Trinkle’s accomplishments were laudable, he is perhaps best known for championing three controversial pieces of legislation: the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, the Forced Sterilization Act of 1924, and the Racial Segregation Act of 1926," the university said.