Tucker Hall - 50 Years of African Americans in Residence

Tucker Hall was opened in 1909 as the Library. Expanded greatly in 1923 and 1929, it has served several functions throughout its history. The first building solely dedicated as a library, it remained as such until 1966. It then housed the Law School and was renamed Marshall-Wythe Hall in 1968. A dozen years later, the Law School moved, and was replaced by the English Department and the Linguistics and Medieval-Renaissance programs. It was then it was renamed for St. George Tucker, a Virginia Supreme Court Justice, federal judge, and the second law professor at William & Mary - succeeding his mentor George Wythe.

The complicated relationship within the Tucker family about slavery mirrors the relationship between William & Mary and African Americans. The namesake of Tucker Hall, St. George Francis, studied law here under George Wythe (the first law professor in the nation) and eventually succeeded him in 1790. Six years later, he wrote and published A Dissertation on Slavery: With A Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of It in the State of Virginia. However, his son Nathaniel Beverly Tucker (who also studied and taught law at William & Mary) was an ardent supporter of enslaving others, calling it beneficial for all involved. These adversarial viewpoints continued well after the 13th amendment, into Reconstruction, Jim Crow, Civil Rights movements, and the first residency of African Americans in 1967 at William & Mary.