Students drive down it every day. There’s a street on Campus Corner named after a one-time grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
   
Debarr Avenue is a somewhat lesser-known tribute to one of the first four faculty members at OU, Edwin C. DeBarr, an honorary vice president at OU.
   
In his book, “The University of Oklahoma:  A History,” OU professor David W. Levy describes the darker side of DeBarr.
   
“Among the four members of the first faculty, one was a strident racist,” Levy wrote. “Despite coming from Michigan and being a Republican, Edwin DeBarr admitted to an irrational fear of black people.”
   
Yet, before his ties to the KKK were discovered, DeBarr rose to high standings at OU and even had a building named after him.  DeBarr Hall, now the chemistry building, was the center of some controversy in the 1980s.  
   
Minority students wanted the name of the building to be changed in order to cut ties with racism.  However, William Branowsky, the president of OU at the time, was reluctant to do this.
   
“After considering all the information available to me regarding the DeBarr Hall issue, it is my judgment the university should not rename DeBarr Hall or other university buildings whose names have been designated by other administrators and Boards of Regents, and which, for better or worse, are a part of the history of the University of Oklahoma,” Branowsky said, according to a June 10, 1982, article from The Oklahoman.
   
When the name change was turned down, students organized a protest.  According to a May 6, 1982, article from The Oklahoman, Joe Freeman, former president of the Black People's Union at OU, was not satisfied that OU officials might reconsider the issue at a later date.
   
“How can I be satisfied when there is a DeBarr Hall at OU?” Freeman said.  “It's an embarrassment to anyone that believes in racial equality.”
    
Those against the name change cited their reluctance to dwell in the past as a reason for maintaining the original building name.
   
“We just want to make sure the past never happens again,” Freeman said.
   
Eventually the name of the building was changed, and now most students have no idea that it once honored a leader of the KKK.  
   
Yet DeBarr's memory lingers on through the presence of DeBarr Avenue.  Though his name is no longer proclaimed on the OU campus, it resounds in Campus Corner.
   
Sonya Patel, OU elementary education sophomore said she thinks the name of the street should be changed.
   
“If you change the building name, you might as well change the street name, too,” Patel said.

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