Carolina Hall was built in 1922 and named for William L. Saunders, an alumnus and a colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill named the building after William L. Saunders in 1922, thirty years after his death.

"[1] Saunders Hall was built in the main quad of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus and remained there for 93 years.

[2] In 2014, university students asked trustees to rename the building due to Saunders' role as a Ku Klux Klan leader.

[8] The Real Silent Sam Coalition, an advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness about the racialized history of spaces on campus, launched a movement in 2015 to rename Saunders Hall, place a plaque on Silent Sam that contextualizes its history, and implement a historical tour of the racialized space on campus for first-year students.