College Eliminates Class Names to Address Racist Past

Wesleyan College, a women’s liberal arts college in Macon, Ga., announced in late July that it will no longer allow class names because the practice has been “embroiled in historical controversy.”  Traditionally, each class of students is assigned one of four rotating class names, but in recent years the naming system has been a focal point of racial tensions on campus because three of the names -- the Green Knights, the Purple Knights and the Golden Hearts -- have links to the Ku Klux Klan. In the past, the link was more direct; the Classes of 1909, 1913 and 1917 chose “Ku Klux Klan” as their class name.