In 1967, it admitted Samford's first black student, Audrey Lattimore Gaston.[28] The entire university proceeded with desegregation.[29] In the fall of 1969 Elizabeth Sloan Ragland became the first African American student to live on campus.[30] On June 1, 2020, the university announced the installation of a memorial honoring "the sacrifices of many African Americans for the mission and vision of Samford University even in days when their efforts were invisible or barely acknowledged" it specifically remembered Gaston and an enslaved servant named "Harry" who died while saving students from the 1854 fire.[31] A few weeks later, as a result of campus conversations in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Westmoreland created a university task force on racial justice.[32] The final version of this task force's report was approved by the university's board of trustees on April 26, 2021 and released to the public the next day.[33]