Law Professors, Minority Issues, Racism, Texas

University of Texas Renames Simkins Hall

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The University of Texas Board of Regents has agreed to rename Simkins Hall. Simkins Hall was named for a former UT Law professor and Ku Klux Klan leader.

The Board of Regents voted unanimously to change the name. The Houston Chronicle reports:

“There has never been any doubt in my mind about what direction they were going to go,” said regent Printice L. Gary of Dallas, the only African-American to serve on the board.

The new names will be Creekside Residence Hall and Creekside Park.

The hero of this story is former UT law professor Thomas Russell. It was his paper that forced UT to confront its past….

But Russell wasn’t trying to force a simple name change. The ABA Journal puts it this way:

Russell told the National law Journal earlier this month that when he wrote his paper, he didn’t expect the name of the dorm to be changed. “Most academic writing drops into the sea like a pebble,” he told the legal publication. “Is renaming a dorm really a big deal? Not in itself. What I wanted to provoke was a bigger conversation about race, history and the law.”

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Keep pushing the ball, Professor Russell.

UT board votes to change dorm name [Houston Chronicle]
Law Prof’s Article Not Just a ‘Pebble’ as UT Drops Klansman’s Name from Dorm [ABA Journal]

Earlier: UT’s KKK Dorm Name Change Is up to the Board of Regents
University of Texas Considers Renaming a Dorm Honoring a Klansman Law Professor

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