Florida KKK founder and UT law professor name struck
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The KKK in Washington about 1925
This story from the AP was published in March 2010 and is updated at the bottom of the original post. I am astonished that it took so long and was so complicated. I don’t care how good of a professor he was, nor how much he was adored by his students. The fact is he was an American terrorist whose beliefs fostered hatred, violence and murder.
Simkins Residence Hall is the last all-male dormitory at the University of Texas. Tucked into a quiet corner of campus along Waller Creek, it was the first men’s dorm with air conditioning. It is notable for another reason: Simkins named for a UT law professor was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
William Stewart Simkins, taught at the School of Law for 30 years until his death in 1929, organized the Klan in Florida after the Civil War with his brother, Eldred, who later became a member of the UT System Board of Regents.
Now, 55 years after opening the dorm, the university is about to begin a review that could result in the removal of Simkins’ name from the building.
The disclosure this week of the review came one day after the American-Statesman asked university administrators about the residence hall’s name and several weeks after the release of a scholarly article examining Simkins’ record.
The article, posted in an online journal, the Social Science Research Network, and part of a collection to be published by the Cambridge University Press, also details the resistance by UT administrators and regents to integration in the 1950s and 1960s despite two landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings against segregation.
“Simkins engaged in illegal, terrorist behavior during Reconstruction and doesn’t merit having a building carrying his name,” the article’s author, Tom Russell, a former UT law professor who now teaches at the University of Denver, said in an interview. “It’s particularly true in view of the fact that he was a law professor.”
UPDATE: In 2010, UT changed the name to Creekside Residence Hall in the light of recently rediscovered disclosures of Simkins’s role as the co-founder of the Florida Ku Klux Klan. University President William Powers, Jr., endorsed the change on July 12, 2010. The regents also changed the name “Simkins Park”, a green space next to the dormitory which had been named for Simkins’s brother, Eldred James Simkins of Corsicana, who served on the UT board from 1882-1893and had reputed Klan ties. The African American trustee, Printice L. Gary (born 1946) of Dallas, made the motion, approved unanimously, to delete the name “Simkins” from the dormitory: “From time to time we are reminded of ugly periods in our nation’s history regarding civil rights. The history behind the name is not in line with today’s University of Texas an its core values.” Gregory Vincent, UT vice president for diversity and community engagement, said that the Simkins Hall sign was removed on July 16, 2010.
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I’m wondering how many places in the south (general south) that have these kinds of histories. ?? I went to a boarding school from 7th thru 9th in the center of FL at place called Howey in the Hills. (Now, it wasn’t THAT long ago.) In the middle of orange groves and when we went by bus to ‘away’ basketball games to schools like Mt. Dora we would be stopped in the middle of the groves by guys in white hooded robes handing us out pamphlets telling us to read them and being nasty to the black nurse. I learned quickly who the KKK was. I went on for my whole first year… til we all told our parents. Never happened in the succeeding years… don’t know who did what. But there they were scary as hell in hoods on our school bus. I’ll bet there are still KKK in that county. I think Tim has a good idea about the teaching value of leaving it there. ?
i mulsulmani teniamoli sotto controllo
history repeats itself,in the past days a black guy used to be considered as an evil one !
and they’ve eliminated that problem,but never learned from there lessons!!
now in 2010,a Muslim,despite his color,his nationality ,and his education level,is considered as a terrorist !!
peace out !
Its good they did it openly otherwise there are so many kkks in many universities
Without the KKK we wouldn’t have had…
“The KKK Took My Baby Away”…The Ramones
My case is rested…;-)
Texas will eventually say that KKK was a kindly and benevolent organization that was misunderstood by a biased and unfriendly media.
Maybe they should redesign their pledge pins to have little burning crosses on them. Yet another moment of pride for Texas.
Good for Russell, calling out the KKK activity. Many Americans think “terrorist” means “Muslim”.
A big plaque in front of the building telling everyone about this guys’ doin’s would be nice, too.
Perhaps the name should remain the same. Ideally it could be used as a teaching tool about True History. That is until they re-write it….
Good point Tim.