T14 Law School Removes Racist Benefactor's Name From Building

Prestigious law schools are starting to question the legacies of their donors.

onJanuary 30, 2020 at 3:16 PMJanuary 30, 2020 at 2:00 PM

Berkeley Law (photo by David Lat)

We have to remember the racism that John Boalt expressed. But that doesn’t mean we honor him by putting his name on the building.

— Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of Berkeley Law, in comments given about the decision to remove the name of its former namesake, “Boalt Hall,” from the elite law school. Per Berkeley Law lecturer Charles Reichmann, Boalt’s “most significant legacy” was his “advocacy for Chinese exclusion.” Boalt’s name was removed today from the law school.

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.