'This truth hurts.' NC university stunned to learn its namesake owned, sold slaves.

The president of Wingate University in Union County said he was stunned to learn recently that his school is named for a slave owner.

“This truth hurts,” President Rhett Brown said in a statement on Friday announcing his discovery that slaveholder Washington Manly Wingate is the school’s namesake.

Wingate is forming a group of faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees, Wingate town officials and others in the next few weeks “to determine next steps,” according to Brown’s statement posted on the university’s website.

And a campus discussion about the revelation is scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 12, on Zoom.

Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/article251257674.html