Thomas Underwood Dudley

Dudley, who was honored in 1880, had served as a major in the Confederate Army. He became the Episcopal Bishop of Kentucky in 1884 and served as Chancellor of the University from 1893-1904. Upon his death, Dudley was honored in Sewanee’s Cap and Gown yearbook.

Some biographers have tried to rehabilitate the former Confederate by arguing that Dudley advocated for Black people's place in mainstream American society, citing an article in which Dudley wrote the following:

"[T]he negro is a citizen, and he has the rights under the Constitution and the laws that any white man has; and yet he needs help, though it may be the black and white demagogues would dislike him to think so,--he needs help, personal, individual, patient, loving help, that he may be fitted to exercise his covenanted rights, and to do the duties which those rights impose."

Dudley's attitude toward Black people, while ostensibly focused on uplifting people of color, was highly paternalistic and reflects a "White Man's Burden" attitude towards the formerly enslaved, where the enlightened, "civilized" white man must uplift and educate the childlike, primitive freedmen.

https://archivesguides.sewanee.edu/repositories/5/resources/26