The Auburn University Board of Trustees has voted to name the Auburn Student Center after Harold Melton, the first black student body president of the university who is now the chief justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia.

The building, located near Jordan-Hare Stadium in the center of the campus, is now the Harold D. Melton Student Center.

“Naming our student center in honor of Chief Justice Melton is an important, historic step in our long-term, deliberative, inclusive effort to strengthen Auburn and ensure that all members of the Auburn Family reach their fullest potential,” said Auburn Trustee James Pratt in a statement.

Melton, 53, served as president of the student body for the 1987-1988 school year. In addition to being the first black student to serve in that role, he was the first person in the office not to have been a member of a fraternity.

Born in Washington, D.C., Melton grew up in Marietta, Georgia, and returned to the state of his youth to attend the University of Georgia School of Law, graduating in 1991.

Melton was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court by then-Governor Sonny Perdue in 2005, and the people of Georgia have voted to keep him in his seat twice since then, most recently in 2018. He was chosen by his fellow justices to be chief justice later that year.

Melton told the Opelika-Auburn News that the honor bestowed by the university “is beyond my furthest imagination.”

“Auburn University has already given me everything I ever could have hoped for in a university, and more,” Melton added.

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95