The University of Virginia is trying to make amends for accepting a donation pledge the Ku Klan Klan made to the school almost 100 years ago. According to The Daily Progress, a donation of the same amount (adjusted for inflation) will be made to a fund for victims of the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville a month ago.
The University of Virginia will repay a 1921 pledge from the Ku Klux Klan, President Teresa A. Sullivan announced Thursday morning.
The university will donate an inflation-adjusted amount of $12,500 to the Charlottesville Patient Support Fund to help with medical expenses of those injured during the Aug. 11 and 12 white supremacist rallies. The original pledge, donated towards rebuilding Memorial gym, and received by then-president Edwin Alderman, was $1,000.
In a statement to the Uva community, Sullivan said:
We have a newspaper account in which he acknowledged the pledge, but no evidence that the pledge was ever paid. The KKK began to wither as an organization by mid-decade, so it’s possible that they never fulfilled that pledge.
But we’re going to acknowledge the pledge, and we’re going do so in a way that would be as disagreeable as possible for any remnants of the KKK who may be watching.
The donation comes after pressure from student groups on the administration since the failed United The Right rally.