CLOSE Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos discusses why the university is renaming Confederate Memorial Hall. Vanderbilt University 
 
 Buy Photo Workers cover up the name on the exterior of Confederate Memorial Hall at Vanderbilt University on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016. Vanderbilt will repay an 83-year-old donation, allowing it to remove the Confederate name from the residence hall. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean)Buy Photo Story Highlights Confederate Memorial Hall opened 1935 with support from United Daughters of the Confederacy. 
 
 Vanderbilt first sought to change the name in 2002. 
 
 Starting in 2005, the university began referring to the building as Memorial Hall. 
 
 To change the name, Vanderbilt raised $1.2 million to repay the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 
 
 Vanderbilt University will repay an 83-year-old donation in order to remove from a residence hall what its leader called "a symbol and a reminder of racism, slavery and a very, very bloody Civil War." 
 
 
 
 Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos made the announcement Monday, capping a 14-year effort to rename Confederate Memorial Hall. The building, which has had that name etched into the stone above its entrance since it opened in 1935, stands in the heart of the university's freshman commons, and has frequently spurred debate about the university's attitude toward an increasingly diverse student body. 
 
 In an interview with The Tennessean, Zeppos — who arrived on campus as a law professor in 1987 — said he had long been in favor of changing the building's name. 
 
 "It's a symbol that is, for many people, deeply offensive and painful," Zeppos said in the interview. "And to walk past it or to have to live in that space is really something that I just don't think is acceptable." 
 
 The United Daughters of the Confederacy originally donated $50,000 in 1933 toward the building’s construction and naming rights in order to honor Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War. 
 
 Vanderbilt previously attempted to rename the building Memorial Hall in 2002, but the Tennessee Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy sued to keep the original name. A Tennessee appeals court ruled in 2005 that Vanderbilt could remove “Confederate” from the inscription only after it had returned the donation at its current value. 
 
 Anonymous donors recently gave the university the $1.2 million needed for that purpose; the Vanderbilt Board of Trust authorized the move this summer. 
 
 Doug Jones, the Nashville attorney who represented the Daughters of the Confederacy against Vanderbilt, called the move "a real slam on the history of our country." 
 
 “All it was was just a simple monument for the boys in Tennessee that died” in the Civil War, Jones said, adding that the name was not connected with slavery. “We think rewriting history’s just terrible. And I think it’s a very sad day for a school with that kind of reputation to be condoning that." 
 
 Universities across the country have faced similar decisions as they re-evaluated the implications of their buildings' names. Students and officials at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro have spent months pushing to remove the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan, from a campus building. MTSU and the Tennessee Board of Regents approved the change, which now goes before a state panel. 
 
 Zeppos flatly rebuffed the criticism that changing the name of a residence hall would compromise the university's approach to its long and complicated history. 
 
 "We are not saying this is not part of Vanderbilt's history," he said. "I think we teach history by how we talk about these events. 
 
 "I don't think that that (name) was really teaching anyone history." 
 
 The longstanding effort to rename the residence hall took on renewed urgency over the past couple of years, as universities across Tennessee and the country grappled with the shadow of racism and slavery on their campuses. At Vanderbilt, founded in 1873 just eight years after the Civil War ended, the name change follows a series of changes made over the past year to address diversity, including the addition of a chief diversity officer to the university's leadership team. 
 
 In 2005, Vanderbilt officially began referring to the building as Memorial Hall, although the word Confederate remained on its facade. Students, faculty and high-ranking administrators argued passionately to remove the word at a town hall on the subject last fall. 
 
 Ariana Fowler, president of Vanderbilt Student Government, praised the university leadership for the decision to formally rename the residence hall. 
 
 “This action demonstrates the administration's attentiveness to student needs and concerns, as well as sets a great precedent for advocating on behalf of those who may feel marginalized on our campus,” Fowler said in the university statement. “This is an excellent next step in the direction of becoming an institution that not only admits diverse students, but ensures their care and support — one who is eager to eliminate any barriers that may stand in the way of such a goal.” 
 
 Zeppos said the decision to remove the mention of the Confederacy from the building spoke to the courage of students, faculty and staff who spoke out against it for years. 
 
 "I hope that they feel as if they've made a big difference in Vanderbilt and in Vanderbilt's history themselves," he said. "It hopefully says we have listened, we have made changes. But I don't think we should assume that our work is completed in any way." 
 
 Crews were already working Monday night to cover the name over the building’s entrance. 
 
 Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets. 
 
 Vanderbilt University began referring to Confederate Memorial Hall as Memorial Hall in 2005. The year was wrong in an earlier version of this story.​ 
 
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 CLOSE The Southern Baptist Convention voted to urge its congregations to stop displaying Confederate flags. The church is by far the largest in the South.Video provided by Newsy Newslook 
 
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 Read or Share this story: http://tnne.ws/2bkJwgO ||||| FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, that it has struck an agreement to pay $1.2 million to United Daughters... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, that it has struck an agreement to pay $1.2 million to United Daughters... (Associated Press) FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced... (Associated Press) 
 
 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will pay more than a million dollars to remove an inscription containing the word "Confederate" from one of its campus dorms. 
 
 The private university has referred to the Confederate Memorial Hall simply as "Memorial Hall" since 2002, but was blocked in court from changing the name chiseled on the building because it was constructed with the help of a $50,000 gift from the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933. 
 
 Under the agreement, Vanderbilt will pay $1.2 million, the equivalent of the gift made 83 years ago, to the organization's Tennessee chapter. In exchange, the chapter will relinquish its naming rights to the building. 
 
 "You can memorialize individuals without taking sides in the bloodiest war that was fought over the divisive issues of slavery and equality that we're still struggling with today for those young people coming onto campus," Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said in a phone interview. 
 
 The money has been pledged by anonymous donors, and Zeppos said the school chooses to focus on "moving Vanderbilt forward" rather than on what projects the Daughters of the Confederacy will spend the funds on, especially in light of a new Tennessee law that makes it more difficult to remove Confederate symbols and statues from public places. 
 
 "The donors and I and others understand that this donation will go to another organization, but this is a very positive step for Vanderbilt," Zeppos said. 
 
 The Daughters of the Confederacy did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. 
 
 About 30 miles to the southeast, Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro wants to remove the name of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from one of its buildings. The public higher education system overseeing the school endorsed the change last month, but the proposal faces a tougher hurdle when it reaches the Tennessee Historical Commission. 
 
 Under the "Tennessee Heritage Protection Act" passed earlier this year, it now takes a vote of at least two-thirds of the commission to approve changing or removing historical markers. That's an increase from the previous requirement of a simple majority vote. 
 
 Calls to remove Confederate imagery from public places multiplied across the South after last year's slaying of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. A white man espousing racist views and who posed in a photo with a Confederate flag has been charged with murder in the killings. 
 
 Following the church shooting, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said he supported removing the Capitol bust of Forrest, who is famous for his exploits as a Confederate cavalry general and amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader in Memphis before the Civil War. 
 
 After the defeat of the Confederacy, the newly formed Ku Klux Klan elected Forrest its honorary grand wizard, though he publicly denied being involved. Two years later, he ordered the Klan to disband because of its members' increasing violence. 
 
 The Forrest bust remains in the lobby between the House and Senate chambers at the state Capitol. ||||| (CNN) More than 150 years after the Civil War ended, the Confederacy is memorialized with statues, monuments and historical markers across the United States. 
 
 Some say they mark history and honor heritage. Others argue they are racist symbols of America's dark legacy of slavery. 
 
 A nationwide debate surrounding this issue has been underway since Dylann Roof killed nine African-Americans in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015 in an effort to " start a race war ." And it flared up again after white nationalists marched last weekend to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia , where a counterprotester was killed amid violent clashes between demonstrators. 
 
 The National Register of Historic Places does not keep a detailed list of Confederate memorials. In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center identified 1,503 Confederate "place names and other symbols in public spaces" across the nation but admitted the study was "far from comprehensive." Some Civil War monuments in the South, such as at battlefields, do not have pro-Confederate symbolism. 
 
 Many local government officials are now weighing whether to keep Confederate memorials in their cities and towns. Here's a state-by-state breakdown: 
 
 Removing 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 A statue of Gen. John Hunt Morgan in Lexington, Kentucky. 
 
 "By relocating these statues we are not destroying, hiding or sanitizing history. We are honoring and learning our history through this relocation," Lexington Mayor Jim Gray wrote on Twitter. 
 
 Gray had announced his intent to relocate the statues in a series of tweets just after the Charlottesville attack. 
 
 Florida 
 
 Manatee County commissioners on August 22 approved by a 4-3 vote a resolution to temporarily move a Confederate memorial from its spot in Bradenton, said county spokesman Nicholas Azzara. No timeline for the move was set. 
 
 This motion was approved: "Based on concerns for public safety of the citizens of Manatee County, I move to remove the Confederate memorial from the courthouse grounds, until a decision can be made, with public input, as to an equally prominent and respectful replacement location, and among those replacement locations to be considered shall be the Veterans Memorial Park adjacent to the Manatee River, and including considering Gamble Plantation." 
 
 The Memoria In Aeterna statue in Tampa. 
 
 In another case, Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners voted in July to remove the Memoria In Aeterna monument, which honors Confederate soldiers, from a county courthouse. The board recently voted that the monument would only be removed if donations could be raised to cover half the cost, estimated to be as high as $280,000. 
 
 By Friday, more than $52,000 in donations had been raised via GoFundMe . In a joint statement, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Lightning and Rays said the sports teams also had donated an undisclosed amount of money. The GoFundMe site now says the necessary money has been raised. 
 
 "Now more than ever before, we must stand united and committed to diversity and inclusion as we all attempt to heal from the tragedy in Charlottesville," the teams' statement said. 
 
 The monument will be relocated to a private cemetery. It is expected to come down as soon as September 4. 
 
 The board is also expected to relocate the Hillsborough County Civil War Veterans Monument. 
 
 Missouri 
 
 The Missouri Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has requested that a monument be moved from its current location on Ward Parkway to prevent further vandalism. The 9-foot tall monument was dedicated in 1934 to honor the "Loyal Women of the Old South," according to city's parks and recreaction website. The monument was boarded up after vandals spray painted it, according to CNN affiliate WDAF. 
 
 New York 
 
 Busts of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson will be removed from the City University of New York's Hall of Fame for Great Americans because "New York stands against racism," Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted Wednesday. "There are many great Americans, many of them New Yorkers worthy of a spot in this great hall," Cuomo tweeted. "These two Confederates are not among them." 
 
 Also Wednesday, Cuomo requested that the acting US secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy, reconsider his refusal to rename General Lee Avenue and Stonewall Jackson Drive at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. 
 
 Virginia 
 
 A statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville's Emancipation Park has been at the center of controversy. 
 
 The Charlottesville City Council voted in April to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at the newly renamed Emancipation Park, CNN affiliate WVIR reported. The violence there over the weekend came after this decision. The removal is on hold pending litigation. 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Madison Mayor Paul Soglin announced Thursday that two Confederate memorials at the Forest Hill Cemetery will be removed. In a statement, Soglin said taking down the "monuments will not erase our shared history. The Confederacy's legacy will be with us, whether we memorialize it in marble or not." 
 
 "There should be no place in our country for bigotry, hatred or violence against those who seek to unite our communities and our country," the mayor's statement said. 
 
 The removal had "minimal or no disruption to the cemetery itself." 
 
 Considering removing 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Birmingham Mayor William Bell ordered plastic draped over a Confederate monument at Linn Park and a plywood structure built around it while officials decide what to do. State law prohibits a city from taking down the monument, he said, but not covering it up. "This country should in no way tolerate the hatred that the KKK, neo-Nazis, fascists and other hate groups spew," he said. "The God I know doesn't put one race over another." 
 
 Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he will sue Bell and the city, citing state law that prohibits the "relocation, removal, alteration, or other disturbance of any monument on public property that has been in place for 40 years or more." 
 
 Florida 
 
 Jacksonville City Council President Anna Lopez Brosche said she asked city officials for an inventory of all Confederate monuments and markers. Brosche said in a statement that she plans to submit legislation to relocate the monuments to museums for "appropriate historical context." 
 
 Georgia 
 
 The city of Atlanta said it is currently reviewing options for the Peace Monument in Piedmont Park. Mayor Kasim Reed asked the public art commission to review the city's art and determine which pieces have ties to racism and slavery, but hasn't asked to remove any. 
 
 Texas 
 
 Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings called for the formation of a task force Tuesday to determine the fate of Confederate statues in city parks during the next 90 days, including the Robert E. Lee statue in Lee Park and the Confederate War Memorial in downtown Dallas, CNN affiliate KTVT reported. "This is simple. We could remove them, the question is, how do we heal on this issue? To do that we have to talk and listen to one another," Rawlings said. 
 
 In San Antonio, two City Council members have pushed for the removal of a Confederate monument at Travis Park, CNN affiliate KSAT reported . Councilmen Roberto Treviño and William "Cruz" Shaw jointly filed a consideration to relocate the monument where it could be used in an "educational context." 
 
 Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner asked city staff to compile an inventory of Confederate statues and make recommendations about whether they should be removed from city property. Members of the public urged the council to take down the statues. "It is my hope that we can, in a very positive and constructive way, move forward," Turner said. 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Officials in Richmond, the one-time capital of the Confederacy, have started to hold public meetings for community input on the future of the city's many Civil War monuments and statues. According to local reports, the first meeting was civil, with spirited debate on both sides. The city hopes to have a plan in place later this fall. 
 
 Washington 
 
 Seattle Mayor Ed Murray wants to remove a monument to Confederate soldiers in Lake View Cemetery. The cemetery is on private property, but Murray said in a statement that his office called the cemetery operator to express his concerns about the monument. Murray said the move would send a "strong message by taking these archaic symbols down." 
 
 "We must remove statues and flags that represent this country's abhorrent history of slavery and oppression based on the color of people's skin. It is the right thing to do," Murray's statement said. 
 
 Not removing 
 
 Arizona 
 
 Gov. Doug Ducey told CNN affiliate KTVK that he will not remove any Confederate monuments or memorials and will instead leave that decision up to the public. 
 
 "It's not my desire or mission to tear down any monuments or memorials. We have a public process for this. If the public wants to be engaged on this, I'd invite them to get engaged in it," Ducey said. 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Officials with Gettysburg National Military Park said they have no plans to remove any of the park's 1,300-plus monuments, markers or plaques. 
 
 Removed 
 
 California 
 
 The Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles removed a Confederate monument Wednesday morning, spokesman Theodore Hovey told CNN. The monument memorialized more than 30 Confederate veterans and their families who are buried in the cemetery. It was erected in 1925. 
 
 A monument honoring Confederate soldiers is removed Wednesday in Los Angeles. 
 
 The Long Beach chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the owners of the monument, asked the cemetery to remove it after it was featured in an August 4 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times , Hovey said. A CNN request for comment from that group was not immediately answered. "It was a mutual decision on the part of the cemetery and the monument's owner that it is best for it to be removed," Hovey said. The graves around the monument were not affected, he said. 
 
 In San Diego, a Confederate marker commemorating the Jefferson Davis Highway was removed Wednesday, according to CNN affiliate KGTV . The marker was installed in Horton Plaza in 1927. 
 
 An online petition asking Mayor Kevin Faulconer, City Councilman Chris Ward and Scarlett Stahl, president of the California division of United Daughters of the Confederacy, to remove the monument was started earlier Wednesday. It had received more than 160 signatures by Thursday morning. 
 
 In a Facebook statement , Ward praised the decision to remove the marker, saying, "Monuments to bigotry have no place in San Diego." 
 
 Florida 
 
 The statue of "Old Joe" in Gainesville, Florida. 
 
 A Confederate statue called "Old Joe" was removed Monday in Gainesville, Florida . The statue sat outside the Alachua County Administration Building for more than 100 years. The Alachua County Board of Commissioners made the decision to remove the statue in May after two years of debate. It will be relocated by the Daughters of the Confederacy. 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 A statute of Confederate President Jefferson Davis came down in May in New Orleans. 
 
 Four Confederate statues were removed in New Orleans earlier this year. The city started removing them in late April after the City Council's vote in 2015 to take down the four Confederate markers. 
 
 The city was able to start the process to relocate the monuments after court rulings cleared the way following heated public debate and legal fights. 
 
 The Louisiana Legislature was considering a measure that would allow local governments to take down a war memorial only if voters approve the action at "an election held for that purpose." 
 
 Maryland 
 
 A monument dedicated to Maryland's Confederate women gets taken down early Wednesday. 
 
 Baltimore removed four Confederate statues early Wednesday after the City Council voted unanimously to take down the monuments immediately, CNN affiliate WBAL reported . Mayor Catherine Pugh defended her decision to remove the monuments "quickly and quietly" overnight, saying it was the best thing for Baltimore. 
 
 "The city charter says, according to our city attorney, if the mayor wants to protect or feels like she needs to protect the public or keep her community safe, she has the right to keep her community safe. I felt the best way to remove the monuments was to remove them overnight," Pugh said. 
 
 A monument of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney is removed early Friday at the Maryland State House. 
 
 In Annapolis, the statue of former Chief Justice Roger Taney was removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House, according to CNN affiliate WBAL. 
 
 Taney wrote the majority opinion in the 1857 Dred Scott decision declaring that slaves were not citizens of the United States and therefore were not protected under the Constitution. 
 
 Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan had called for the statue's removal on Tuesday. 
 
 "While we cannot hide from our history -- nor should we -- the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history," Hogan said in a statement. 
 
 And a Confederate memorial was removed late Monday from outside the Howard County Circuit Courthouse in Ellicott City. 
 
 "It has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that memorials such as this are hurtful to many residents in our community and elsewhere," said Howard County Executive Allan H. Kittleman. "Given these feelings and the tragedy in Charlottesville, I felt compelled to remove this memorial from public property." 
 
 Kittleman received permission from a historic preservation commission to remove the monument after a five-day public notice. The monument will be donated to a local museum. 
 
 "We can't forget that this symbol and symbols like this represent hate and cause many people pain," County Council Chair Jon Weinstein said. "The monument is not representative of who we are as a community today and does not belong on grounds of a building that represents justice." 
 
 Missouri 
 
 The Confederate Memorial was removed in July from Forest Park in St. Louis. 
 
 The Confederate Memorial in St. Louis was removed in July after an agreement between the city and the Missouri Civil War Museum. 
 
 The museum agreed to pay for the monument's removal and storage until a permanent new location could be found. The museum must find a Civil War museum, battlefield or cemetery outside St. Louis as the monument's new home, the city said. 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Protesters kick the fallen statue of a Confederate soldier in Durham, North Carolina. 
 
 Protesters toppled over a Confederate statue Monday in front of the old Durham County Courthouse. The monument depicted a soldier holding a gun and had an engraving that said "in memory of the boys who wore gray." The protest was held in response to the Charlottesville violence. 
 
 Also in Durham, the president of Duke University authorized the removal Saturday of a Robert E. Lee statue that was defaced earlier in the week. The statue adorned the entrance of Duke Chapel. It sat between figures of Thomas Jefferson and Sidney Lanier, a Georgia poet who served in the Confederate Army. 
 
 Duke President Vincent E. Price said he had authorized the Lee statue's removal to ensure the safety of those who worship in the chapel and "to express the deep and abiding values of our university." A commission will be created to determine how to "navigate the role of memory and history" and how to memorialize historic figures on campus, he said. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 A monument of Lee was removed late Wednesday night from a highway in Franklin, Ohio, said Jonathan Westendorf, acting city manager. The monument was affixed to a rock formation to mark the Dixie Highway. It was erected and dedicated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1927. 
 
 Westendorf said the monument was removed overnight "to assure the safety of the crews performing the work, as well as to secure the monument from potential damage," according to a statement. It is intact and has been returned to Franklin Township, Westendorf told CNN. 
 
 Texas 
 
 The University of Texas in Austin has removed four Confederate statues, according to campus police spokeswoman Cindy Posey. A small crowd watched as statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan and James Stephen Hogg were removed from the university's Main Mall. "The Lee, Johnston and Reagan statues will be added to the collection of the Briscoe Center for scholarly study," university president Greg Fenves. The statue of Hogg (who was governor of Texas from 1891 to 1895) will be considered for re-installation elsewhere on campus. Two statues -- one of Jefferson Davis and one of former President Woodrow Wilson -- were removed in 2015 following the Charleston church shooting. The Davis statue is now part of a scholarly exhibition, according to the university.
– In an attempt to bury a relic of its past, Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will pay more than $1 million to remove the word "Confederate" from one of its dorms, the Tennessean reports. Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos called the inscription on Confederate Memorial Hall "a reminder of racism, slavery and a very, very bloody Civil War." The Nashville university's efforts to change the name in 2002 were halted when the United Daughters of the Confederacy sued. The group’s $50,000 donation in 1933 helped build the dorm. A state appeals court ruled the building could be renamed Memorial Hall only after Vanderbilt gave the United Daughters back their money—$1.2 million in today’s dollars. The university has the cash, thanks to a raft of anonymous contributors who wanted the tie to America’s painful past broken for good. "It's a symbol that is, for many people, deeply offensive and painful," Zeppos told the Tennessean. "And to walk past it or to have to live in that space is really something that I just don't think is acceptable.” Yet tampering with Confederate imagery remains controversial, and a new state law makes it harder to do so, the AP reports. Efforts by Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro to remove the name of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from a building could face a tougher climb under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which now requires a vote of two-thirds of the state’s Historical Commission rather than a simple majority.