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EIU panel turns down new name for Douglas Hall

CHARLESTON - The Eastern Illinois University Naming Committee voted Tuesday to recommend not changing Douglas Hall's namesake from Stephen Douglas to Frederick Douglass.

The committee also suggested that EIU take steps to emphasize that Douglas Hall, part of a complex with Lincoln Hall, is named as part of a commemoration of the Sept. 18, 1858, Lincoln-Douglas debate in Charleston, not in tribute to Stephen Douglas as an individual, and to promote this debate history.

"That (debate) is an important thing that happened in Charleston and an important event to to commemorate," said Mary Anne Hanner, a presidential appointee to the committee....
Read entire article at Journal-Gazette and Times Courier