Associated Press
A former Republican governor of Vermont has sued Middlebury College, his alma mater, accusing it of cancel culture behavior for removing the name of another former governor and Middlebury graduate from the campus chapel for what the school said was his role in eugenics policies in the early 1900s. Former Gov. James Douglas filed the breach of contract lawsuit against the president and fellows of the Vermont college on Friday as special administrator of John Abner Mead's estate. Without any warning or public discussion, Middlebury announced in 2021 that Mead Memorial Chapel would “no longer bear the name John Mead, Vermont governor from 1910 to 1912 and Middlebury Class of 1864, due to (Governor Mead’s) role in promoting eugenics policies in the state that led to the involuntary sterilization of an estimated 250 people," wrote Douglas who served as governor from 2003 to 2011.