Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is active in the community for a number of causes. He is now calling for change at Clemson University, his alma mater.
He spoke out on social media, sharing a petition to change the name of Clemson’s honors college. Now named the Calhoun Honors College for John C. Calhoun, Hopkins is calling for the university to remove his name, as he was a slave owner.
At the time this was published, more than 13,000 people had signed the petition.
According to the petition, Calhoun once, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, advocated for the expansion of slavery as a “positive good.”
The Honors College was given his name in 1981.
With the nation becoming more aware of institutional racism and more sensitive to the subject following the death of George Floyd in police custody, now is as good a time as ever to cause change in something as simple as changing the name of a college within a university.
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