Woke students have forced Liverpool University to rebrand an accommodation block named after William Gladstone because of his family’s links to slavery.
Gladstone Halls will be renamed after racial inequality campaigner Dorothy Kuya, who was the city’s first community slavery officer.
But the move has caused fury among members of the faculty, with politics professor Dr David Jeffrey slamming the decision as ‘shameful’.
He added: ‘Liverpool University is shamefully going ahead with renaming Gladstone Hall. Named after one of our greatest Prime Ministers and one of Liverpool’s most consequential political exports.
‘He worked for the abolition of slavery and never owned slaves himself.’
Gladstone Halls will be renamed after racial inequality campaigner Dorothy Kuya (pictured), who was the city’s first community slavery officer
Gladstone (pictured) – the British prime minister between 1868 and 1894 – never owned slaves himself, but his family had links to the trade
Gladstone – the British prime minister between 1868 and 1894 – never owned slaves himself, but his family had links to the trade.
The move to change the name of the halls was first touted in 2017, when students signed an online petition.
Alisha Raithatha, from Birmingham, spent her first year at Liverpool University living in the Roscoe and Gladstone Halls.
She did not realise Gladstone’s links to slavery until making a trip to the city’s slavery museum.
‘I didn’t realise — I don’t think anybody did,’ she told the Liverpool Echo. ‘I looked it up and realised William Gladstone wasn’t in favour of abolishing slavery. I was a bit disgusted to live in the building without realising that history.’
So she began a petition on the Liverpool Guild of Students’ website, explaining she was ‘horrified’ by the news about Gladstone’s past.
‘We believe,’ the petition said, that ‘someone with this controversial background should not have a university hall named after them, especially in a city where we try hard not to forget the atrocities that took place on our docks.’
In a follow up tweet after the final decision was made in March, Dr David added: ‘We’re post-truth. It doesn’t matter what the facts are, if you can kick up a storm on social media you can bully your way to getting what you want.
‘Liverpool’s going to be a historically barren place if you erase everyone who was even close to someone who owned slaves.’
Gladstone, a Liberal politician, once campaigned for compensation for slave owners after the abolition of the horrific practice but also dubbed slavery the ‘foulest crime.’
The university halls will be now named after Liverpudlian race campaigner Ms Kuya.
A Liverpool Guild spokesperson said: ‘Students have been at the heart of this campaign and I wanted to personally thank all previous students and Student Officers for working so hard on this.
‘And finally a huge thank you to everyone who had their say and voted in the referendum.
‘I am so proud to have finished what they had started and taking the necessary steps to create a more inclusive and diverse campus.’
The university halls (pictured) will be now named after Liverpudlian race campaigner Ms Kuya
The decision was revealed after 4465 votes were cast in a referendum
Politics professor at Liverpool University, Dr David Jeffery slammed the decision
It comes as it was revealed Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are to be relabelled in the British Library to explain how it once came to be owned by a slave-trading family. Left, a portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer (c 1342 to 1400), who wrote The Canterbury Tales (right)
Dorothy Kuya was born in 1932 in Toxteth, Liverpool, before becoming a lifelong commuist activist, co-founder of Teachers Against Racism, and the general secretary of the National Assembly of Women.
Ms Kuya also served as the Head of Race Equality for Haringey Council and helped to establish the Liverpool International Slavery Museum in 2007.
It comes as it was revealed Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are to be relabelled in the British Library to explain how it once came to be owned by a slave-trading family.
The relabelling of the collection is part of the institution’s ‘anti-racism action plan’ which was put in place after the Black Lives Matter protests last year, internal documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph reveal.
It will see an overhaul of all 210 items in the library’s public-facing Treasures Collection which includes invaluable literary artefacts such as Shakespeare’s First Folio, some of which have links to the slave trade in their history.