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When I toured the  in 2019, I noticed the multivolume  on display. It struck me as remarkable that Calhoun鈥檚 ideas would be featured so prominently given his vigorous defense of slavery and his role in laying the groundwork for the Civil War.

But the reality is that  until now has been quite prominent in American society鈥攁nd not just in the South.

His statue stands between the two chambers of the House and Senate in the South Carolina Statehouse. However, a separate statue in Charleston has been  from the town square after nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd during an encounter with police. The statue had stood for 124 years just a block from , site of the  of nine Black worshippers by an avowed white supremacist. The church is also on Calhoun Street. 

Despite his historic prominence, Calhoun鈥檚 days as a revered icon in the public sphere are gradually coming to an end.

Calhoun is all around us

Numerous cities and counties, streets and roads, schools, and other public places are named for Calhoun, a  who served as , , , and two terms as .

For instance, the  sits in the capitol complex in Columbia, South Carolina鈥檚 state capital city.

Counties are named for him in his , as well as , , , and elsewhere in the South. There is even a  named for him. 

Major streets in Columbia and Charleston still bear his name.

Colleges and universities

Despite his prominence elsewhere, Calhoun is about to become less prominent on the landscape of American higher education.

The board of trustees at Clemson University, a public university,  June 12 that its Honors College would no longer be named after Calhoun.

South Carolina鈥檚 prevents renaming of buildings without legislative approval, but the honors college is an organizational unit, not a building.

This is a particularly significant development given that Clemson University sits on what was once , which his daughter and her husband, Thomas Clemson, inherited.

While public memorials of Calhoun appear to be on the decline, what I find more significant鈥攁nd more troublesome鈥攊s the way that Calhoun鈥檚 ideology has been ingrained in the American culture and psyche鈥攑rimarily because his ideas were embraced in U.S. institutions of higher learning long after his death.

I make this observation as a historian and author of a chapter for the , Persistence Through Peril: Episodes of College Life and Academic Endurance in the Civil War South.

Who was he?

, who was born in 1782 and died a decade before the Civil War began, in 1850, was not only a  and an ardent defender of slavery, but a chief architect of the political system that allowed slavery to persist.

More enduring than the effects of his political career鈥攚hich included the  to expand the number of slaveholding states 鈥攁re the repercussions of his political ideology. 

As a political theorist, Calhoun is best known for two ideas: 鈥溾�� and 鈥渘ullification.鈥� A concurrent majority is the notion that a minority of the electorate鈥攏amely, one with money and property鈥攃an veto a political majority.

This idea is related to his belief in  theory, which is the idea that a state can void federal laws. Nullification made the idea of South Carolina seceding from the nation鈥攁nd the creation of the Confederacy鈥攁 political possibility and then a reality. 

Calhoun laid out his arguments for these ideas in his treatise 鈥�.鈥�

While some Americans defended slavery as a 鈥溾�� Calhoun viewed slavery as 鈥�.鈥�

He held , declaring: 鈥淲e make a great mistake when we suppose that all people are capable of self-government.鈥�

The Calhoun curriculum

Calhoun鈥檚 political doctrines were taught explicitly in college classrooms for decades after his death. are still in the curriculum.

His own views on nullification theory, states鈥� rights, and secession were formed when he studied at Yale University, where the college鈥檚 president, , introduced to him the espoused the idea that New England could leave the young nation and become a separate country. Yale named a residential college in his honor in 1931. It  after the intense pressure from students and alumni after the Charleston massacre at the Mother Emanuel Church.

In the chapter that I am writing for Persistence through Peril, I am explaining how Calhoun鈥檚 ideologies permeated Southern institutions of higher education. His views were taught at the Military Academy of South Carolina, before, during, and after the Civil War. When those cadets studied the U.S. Constitution, their professors and texts emphasized Calhoun鈥檚 interpretation of it.

, a Citadel graduate and Confederate Army colonel who served as professor, superintendent, and later trustee at The Citadel, heaped praise upon Calhoun, having served as editor for  in 1857.

In a speech given at Clemson University on June 22, 1897, Thomas declared, 鈥淚t is conceded that Calhoun鈥檚 standard in the science of government is so lofty as in some respects to be unattainable in our day and generation.鈥�

The road ahead

Decades of teaching a particular doctrine do not fade easily or quickly. The United States is now witnessing another  with protests for social justice. Symbols of racism and white supremacy are being removed from higher education. 

On June 17, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees  its  on renaming buildings, put in place after the statue known as 鈥溾�� was torn down in 2018.

The , which includes the University of Georgia, also moved in June 2020 to review the names of its buildings. This would include the University of Georgia鈥檚 Grady School of Journalism, which is named after Henry Grader, an .

After Calhoun鈥檚 death in 1850, his colleague in the Senate,  of Missouri, remarked about him: 鈥淗e is not dead. There may be no vitality in his body, but there is in his doctrines.鈥� He was prophetic in his words. 

Calhoun鈥檚 ideologies , gave comfort to those who believed in the 鈥溾�� (that is, to show the Civil War in the best light possible from the Confederate point of view), and perpetuated the teaching of racist and white supremacist attitudes.

Because the ideas he espoused have flourished, I believe that dismantling his legacy will take much more than just removing statues of his likeness or renaming buildings, streets, and other public places named in his honor.

This article was originally published by . It has been published here with permission.