Rochester Institute of Technology is dropping Nathaniel Rochester’s name from one of its campus residence halls — and making history in the process.
Col. Nathaniel Rochester isn’t just the city’s founder and namesake. In 1829, he started Rochester Athenaeum, which later merged with the Mechanics Institute and ultimately became RIT.
But Nathaniel Rochester built his wealth as a slaveowner.
In an open letter to the RIT community on Tuesday, President David Munson cited that history as the reason for removing Rochester’s name from a residence hall and honoring Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry instead.
The granddaughter of Frederick Douglass was born here and took classes at Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute in 1906. She would later make her mark in Kansas City as a philanthropist and activist on behalf of African American women and girls.
“In recent years, historians have brought to light that Nathaniel Rochester, the businessman who was one of Rochester, N.Y.’s founders, was a slave owner who engaged in buying and selling enslaved individuals,” read the letter signed by Munson and Keith Jenkins, RIT’s vice president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion. “As we address this reality, university leaders — including students — want to convey one small but meaningful way for those of us living today to be accountable and be empathetic toward our African American students and employees.”
RIT is not the first to make such a change. Two years ago, the City School District removed Nathaniel Rochester’s name from School 3, choosing instead to honor Alice Holloway Young, one of the district’s pioneering Black teachers.
The residence hall name change is effective immediately with signage expected to go up in August.
Munson noted it is the first building on the RIT campus to be named after a person of color.
