This is the story of the rededication of Douglas Hall to Powell-Norton Hall. The school wanted to remove the name of Stephen Douglas, a pro-slavery Senator from Illinois from the building. The board of Trustees appointed a naming committee to select possible candidates.

 

The editor of the school newspaper the Daily Eastern News ,Corryn Brock, was very interested in this project. Corryn decided to find some candidates for the renaming. She and her staff found Zella Powell. Corryn reached out to Zella’s family for information on Zella and found Stephanie Griggs, Curator/owner of Picture Perfect: Zella’s traveling Scrapbook. Stephanie shared information. from her exhibit with Corryn. This exhange of information led to the following series of articles written by Corryn. These articles helped make the case for the EIU Board of trustees to select Zella Powell as one of two women  for the rededication.See news articles.