The 70-ton boulder is officially known as Chamberlin Rock in honor of Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, a geologist and former university president. But the rock was referred to at least once after it was dug out of the hill as a "niggerhead.”
The Wisconsin Black Student Union called for the rock's removal over the summer. President Nalah McWhorter said the rock is a symbol of the daily injustices that students of color face on a predominantly white campus. McWhorter also faulted the Wisconsin State Journal for printing the vulgarity in a 1925 news article. University historians identified the news story as the only known instance of the offensive term being used.
Carried by glaciers from perhaps as far north as Canada, the boulder was excavated from the side of Observatory Hill in 1925.
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