Middleton Name Officially Removed From LSU’s Campus

The library on LSU's main campus will no longer be named after Troy Middleton following a unanimous vote.

Earlier this week, we wrote about how LSU and their leaders are actively looking into renaming buildings on campus which are named after those with a racially-controversial past. At the top of their list, was the Troy H. Middleton Library.

Today, on Juneteenth, the Board of Supervisors met to cast their vote.

Middleton severed in both World War I and World War II, and became University President at LSU in February 1951. Despite reaching the university's mandatory retirement age of 70 in 1959, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to waive the age requirement, which allowed Middleton to continue as President until February of 1962.

Fast-forward nearly 60 years and that same Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously again. Only this time, the vote was to get Middleton out of LSU and away from its campus.

Citing Middleton's desire and pursuit of segregation noted well into the 50's, the board unanimously decided to remove his name from the main campus's library. Governor John Bel Edwards supported the removal, saying, "LSU students should not be asked to study in a library bearing the name of someone who did not want them to be LSU students."

During the meeting and before the vote, one board member read a letter written by Middleton in 1956 in regards to African-American students at LSU. The letter is quite polarizing, reading, "I do not want negro students in LSU, I believe in the segregation of the races, and no matter what may come I shall not associate with negros.”

The library was named after Middleton back in November of 1978, two years after his death.