Texas (Snicker) Has Dorm Named After A Klan Leader
AUSTIN, Texas (June 1) -- In 1954, the University of Texas named a dorm after William Stewart Simkins, who taught law there for three decades. Simkins has been dead for more than 80 years but now his past -- as a leader of the Ku Klux Klan -- has come back to haunt the school.
The disclosure of Simkins' past in a recently published article has the UT administration considering whether to remove his name from the dorm -- Simkins Residence Hall.
"Simkins was a mask-wearing coward, a night-riding Klansman who admitted committing violence against freed slaves," legal historian Tom Russell told AOL News.
Considering whether to remove his name? What is there to consider? The name has to be changed doesn't it? I wonder if that's the dorm Buck Burnette lived in.
over 1 year ago
ccmachine
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How Sooners handled a building named for Klansman
C&C Machine:
The Chemistry Building on OU’s campus was formerly the DeBarr Chemistry Hall.
After it came to light that DeBarr was a Klansman, OU students insisted that his name be removed, which it was.
See: http://hub.ou.edu/articles/article.php?article_id=1064826974
That would be a simple solution for Texas to implement with regard to Simkins Hall.
For up-to-date media coverage of the Texas Klan Dorm issue, see http://simkins.houseofrussell.com
I would be willing to bet this is a lot more prevalent than we would ever imagine. We drive by buildings and streets everyday and never give it a second thought as to where the name came from. Hopefully UT will do the right thing and rename the building just as OU did.
Not prevalent
I don’t believe that there are many buildings at all that are named for Klansman. Apart from Simkins, my fellow professors and I have been able to think of one two Klansmen in Alabama for whom university buildings are named and one other in Tennessee. One of the AL KKKers does have about 13 buildings named after him. Still, Simkins, 2 in AL, and another in TN—that’s it.
Sen. Byrd, an ex-Klansman, may be a special case of course. He repented from being in the Klan and is the namesake of many things.
Outside of universities, there are undoubtedly others, but on university campuses, having a building named for a Klansman is very, very rare.
Simkins and DeBarr are the only Klan professors that I know of right now who have or had buildings named for them.
If anyone has other examples, please send them to me.
Prof. Tom Russell
My apologies, I meant buildings in general. I wasn’t intending to mean universities. I am sorry. I know, for example, in the area of north Texas where I currently live, that there is historically a large amount of Klan activity. I am certain many of the founding type fathers have their share of ties to the Klan. My own family is Cherokee Indian, having family with trail of tears roots & travels from North Carolina through southern states into arkansas & finally Oklahoma, I have only heard the stories from granparents & their siblings. My grandmother moved to Oklahoma 15 years before statehood.
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