Univ. of Texas to mull taking Klansman off dorm

[NoGOPZone]

Source: Associated Press via Yahoo! News

The president of the University of Texas will ask the school's regents to remove the name of a former professor and Ku Klux Klan member from a campus dormitory.

Simkins Hall, a two-story brick dorm built in the 1950s, is named after William Simkins, who was a popular law school professor in the early part of the 20th century but one with a dubious past. He served as a Confederate fighter and early organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in Florida, promoting the Klan and bragging about efforts to terrorize and harass "darkey" in campus speeches and publications.

On Thursday, Texas President William Powers Jr. will ask university regents to take his name off the dorm — a move that comes after weeks of deliberations by an advisory panel and two public hearings. The regents are expected to bring the issue to a vote.

"An institution like ours is shaped by its history, but it need not be encumbered by it," Powers said


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100714/ap_on_re_us/us_texas_dorm_kkk?rated_comment=15528374#mwpphu-container

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The teabaggers are already going crazy over this. I'd like to see the University really screw with their heads by naming the hall after Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, U of T Law School graduates who were the plantiff's attorneys in Roe v. Wade

[Mz Pip]

1. It speaks volumes

that this is the result fo "weeks of deliberation by an advisory panel and two public hearing." Weeks? Sort of sounds like there were people advocating rather forcefully that the name be retained.

[Mac1949]

9. Remind me, what century are we in?

This should be a no-brainer not requiring "weeks of deliberation by an advisory panel and two public hearings." Nor should the president of the U of T "ask the regents", rather, he should demand action. Racism has to be confronted, not treated indulgently.:grr:

[Paladin]

12. My Beloved University Is In The Process Of Lighting A Candle....

...and predictably, there are the usual bunch of D.U. Texas-bashers who are content to just curse the darkness. U.T. not moving fast enough for your rarefied standards? Well, cry me a river---preferably the size of the Colorado as it cuts through Austin. And check the names on the housing facilities at whatever school or schools you went to, and see if your sanctimony is justified.

And my candidate for a new name for Simkins? That's easy: Ivins. As in Molly. And if the U.T. Regents need to be consulted about it, that's fine with me.....

[NoNothing]

2. They should name after Robert Byrd

Oh...wait...

[jberryhill]

3. There is a real difference between being repentant and unrepentant /nt

[NoNothing]

4. True, true

I keed, I keed.

[Rebubula]

7. Only...

...if they have a 'D' next to their name.

If Byrd were Republican, there would be grave dancing and champagne.

[jberryhill]

8. If Byrd were a Republican he'd still be a member

Check out the definition of "repentant" some time.

Then check out the organizations which Jeff Sessions STILL supports.

But, you know, if my left leg was an arm, then one of my feet would be a hand!

[Rebubula]

10. Repentant

Only God and Robert know if he is repentant and neither is talking. (paraphrase from the great James Woods movie, True Believer)

I come from Georgia (definitely a hotbed of Klan crap) and know several current and former klansmen. Many of the former have simply adapted to the times and become camouflaged. In private, they are still the racist assholes they were in the 50s and 60s. Ohh...and MOST of them are lifelong Democrats.

I certainly agree that Sessions is an asshole. But at the same time, I can recognize that so was Byrd.


Racism is not limited to party affiliation, gender, social class or even Race.

[Qutzupalotl]

11. Byrd apologized for joining the Klan a while ago.

In 1997, Byrd told an interviewer he would encourage young people to become involved in politics but also: "Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena." In his last autobiography, Byrd explained that he was a KKK member because he "was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision — a jejune and immature outlook — seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions." Byrd also said, in 2005,

“I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened.”
— Robert C. Byrd

At Byrd's memorial service, former President Bill Clinton excused Byrd's early association with the KKK:
"I'll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollers of West Virginia, he was trying to get elected. And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does."

So yes, he was talking. Sorry you didn't hear it.

Sessions, on the other hand, is an unrepentant asshole.

[KamaAina]

5. Yale has for years had a similar debate over Calhoun College

we don't call them "dorms", you see. :-)

While not a Klansman, if only because he predated them, John C. Calhoun of SC was a slaveholder and an ardent secessionist. Clinton College (both Bill and Hillary are Law School alums), anyone?

[urbuddha]

6. Texas and the Klan

Gosh... Texas has a long history with the Klan. Why would they ever want to do that ?
:sarcasm:

[RadicalTexan]

17. Oh, please. Educate yourself.

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/MM/fmo19.html

I'm sure wherever you are from, no genocide or racism or oppression has EVER occurred.

:sarcasm:

[seabeyond]

13. get er done. UT is a very liberal university in texas. will be glad to see it done. nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Right-wingers are protesting THIS? For real?

:wow:

[JerseygirlCT]

15. Geez, like that even requires any thought or discussion!

What a blot on the school - get it gone, yesterday.

[RadicalTexan]

16. I graduated from and work at UT.

Obviously I agree with the renaming.

But I do wonder when the very prominently placed statues of George Washington, Jefferson Davis, and Woodrow Wilson will be removed from the South Mall?

Or when all the blood-for-oil corporate "donors'" names will be taken off the huge, new, state of the art campus buildings.

Etc.

[classysassy]

18. The black football and basketball players

should stand up and demand the name be removed or they will transfer to other schools.