RALEIGH – Josephus Daniels was an advocate for NC State University. But he also was an avowed white supremacist who helped foment the Wilmington massacre of 1898.

In the accompanying video, NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson explains a decision by the school’s Board of Trustees last month to remove Daniels’ name from Daniels Hall, which has been used by NC State’s College of Engineering.

“Josephus Daniels was a devout white supremacist,” Woodson says.

Daniels (1862-1948) was a trustee at the University. He lobbied the state legislature for support of State’s engineering program – particularly electrical engineering, Woodson says, because he was passionate about rural electrification.

But he also used his position as owner of The (Raleigh) News & Observer, then the state’s largest newspaper, to espouse white supremacist views and support Jim Crow restrictions that disenfranchised Black voters.

He is considered one of the principal instigators of the Wilmington massacre of 1898, in which as many as 300 Black people were killed and a thriving Black business community was destroyed. The city’s elected Fusionist government was driven from office, and the insurrection is known as the only domestic coup d’etat in U.S. history.¹ 

“It really is a legacy that is just completely opposite of NC State’s values and higher education’s values,” Woodson says.

Woodson says he has spoken with descendants of Daniels, and they understand the university’s reasoning. Built in the 1920s, the building has not been renamed, he says, because it is currently being vacated by the College of Engineering, needs extensive renovations and its future use is uncertain.

The NC State trustees’ decision followed the Daniels family’s removal of a statue of Josephus Daniels in downtown Raleigh² and a vote by the Wake County school board to rename Daniels Middle School in Raleigh.³

“I think it’s a good outcome for the University,” Woodson says.

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¹https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article243709067.html.
² https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article243559272.html.
³https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article243567137.html.