Discussions on Dorm Named for Klan Prof Begin

UT website

Located next to Waller Creek, Simkins Residence Hall is the University of Texas's (UT) last all-male dormintory. Over the last several weeks, the otherwise unassuming building has been the focus of a debate dredging up distant, but not forgotten, memories of our nation's history.

For those that do not know, Simkins Hall is named after the late UT law professor William Stewart Simkins, who died in 1929. Simkins was also a member of the Ku Klux Klan. More than rank-and-file, he helped with the organization of the group in Florida.

Tom Russell, a former professor at UT Law, uncovered this part of Simkins' history when he found a 1914 speech Simkins made to students. In a phone interview, Russell told KUT, "Professor Simkins admit[ted] that he put on a mask. That he rode a masked horse, and that he went out at night on night rides to terrorize free blacks."

This week an advisory panel comprised of UT faculty, staff, students, alumni, and a community representative will meet to discuss and make recommendations to the Board of Regents concerning the renaming of Simkins Hall.

Some, including Dr. Jesus de la Teja, head of the history department at Texas State, have called for restraint. "[While] it is complex... we shouldn't have knee jerk reactions over historical issues except in cases where there's a clear cut need to redress a wrong," de la Teja told KUT. He added, "We haven't stopped naming buildings for Thomas Jefferson and he was a slave owner."

Russell counters such arguments of historical context, stating that Simkins was "[e]ngaging in activity that was illegal then and illegal now... distinguish[ing] him from, say confederate soldiers or even slave owners."

UT has created a website dedicated to the Simkins Hall debate.

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By A.J. Bingham in News on June 8, 2010 2:15 PM 0 Comments

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thetimeisnow

As a professor of history you must know there are grave and substantial differences between Jefferson and Simkins. Primarily, the formation of KKK was intended in large part to terror and vitiate the rights of FREE PEOPLE. Simkins and others like him, sought to terrorize free people and to operate outside the laws (as woefully inadequate as they were); these laws which were established to protect free people. Simkins advocated advocated and participated in a terror that you seem to attempt to mitigate with your comparison --- there is no comparison and Simkins advocating breaking the law and might be considered a terrorist. He was a part of an organization which practiced the MOST of abhorrent conducst -- tar and feathering, burning, hanging, skinning and far worse. It is difficult for the mind and heart to grasp the nature and origin of such hatred and it is equally unfathomable that you would deign to compare the likes of Jefferson to a monster as Simkins. Slavery in the US was wrong, and Jefferson is not praised as a slave holder but is praised and an indispensable contributor in helping to guide and assure creation of the U.S. constitution. Please do no make such comparisons. Simkins ideology had sharp contrasts to Jefferson, as the former spewed hateful and racist vitriol that is not the Jefferson I learned of in my history course. Not a a PhD but this I know.