Louisiana State University will rename Middleton Library pending board approval.
The library is currently named after Troy H. Middleton, a former LSU president who opposed desegregating the university.
The proposed change would include removing the bust of Middleton and anything associated with his name in the building. The announcement came Wednesday night, shortly after LSU officials met with Black student leaders to discuss ways to support racial justice on campus.
There is currently a petition to rename the library after Pinkie Gordon Lane, the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. from LSU. Lane was the first Black person to be appointed Louisiana State Poet Laureate. Her second collection of poetry, The Mystic Female, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1979.
