Abolitionist Sojourner Truth and Rutgers’ 1st Black Graduate James Carr Have Buildings Named After Them on Campus

Style Magazine Newswire | 9/18/2017, 8:11 a.m.
Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey has renamed its College Avenue Apartments to honor Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery, …
Sojourner Truth

Source: Good Black News

via jbhe.com

Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey has renamed its College Avenue Apartments to honor Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery, Sojourner Truth became a leading abolitionist and advocate for women’s rights.

While a slave, Sojourner Truth and her parents were owned by relatives of the first president of Rutgers University. The Sojourner Truth Apartments house 440 upper-class students.

Azra Dees, a sophomore in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers, stated that “it shows a dedication to the history that we have and moving forward. And I’ll always know that I have a meaning behind the building that I’m living in, rather than just being a beautiful new building.”

James Dickson Carr (photo via libraries.rutgers.edu)

James Dickson Carr (photo via libraries.rutgers.edu)

In addition, the former Kilmer Library on Rutgers-New Brunswick’s Livingston Campus in Piscataway has been renamed the James Dickson Carr Library after Rutgers’ first African-American graduate. James Dickson Carr completed his degree in 1892 and went on to attend Columbia Law School.

To read more, go to: Rutgers University Honors African Americans Who Are Part of Its History : The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education