Apparently, at one time, a school from the South named a dorm after the founder of the KKK in Florida, and the name stayed intact safely, until several weeks ago, when
this paper by Dr. Tom Russell was published. It gives some good insight on one William Stewart Simkins, a Colonel for the Confederacy who taught at the University of Texas from 1899 to his death in 1929:
"By 1868—the year that the states ratified the 14th Amendment—Colonel Simkins saw that 'the negroes became bolder, incendiary harangues were heard everywhere, white women could not appear on the streets without escort, and domestic duties were performed with a ready pistol at hand.' He also observed that 'Equal rights began to assume the form on insistence on social equality. . . .' In his 6,700-word article for the alumni magazine—titled “Why the Ku Klux”—Professor Simkins explained that 'to meet this saturnalia of crime and insolence; to suppress this volcano on which our women and children were nightly sleeping; . . . arose the "Invisible Empire." 'The Klan,' he noted, 'was composed of the best young men of the land, soldiers of the Southern army, many of them heroes in battle, and now as fearless in their duty as they had been in war.' 'Our mission,' the Klansman said succinctly, 'was the protection of our women and children.'"
Those Negroes, what were they thinking with their aims for social equality? Anyway, after forming the Florida KKK, which like other chapters went dormant, Simpkins becomes a professor at the University of Texas, and time does not change his views on Blacks:
"During the following academic year, Colonel Simkins’s [1914] speech was the main event on the most important American day for feasting and prayerful reflection. His speech, titled 'The Ku Klux Klan,' was the centerpiece of the first-ever celebration of Thanksgiving Day on campus. Well over three hundred students crowded into campus headline was 'Simkins Gives Famous Lecture on Ku Klux.' To his appreciative student audience, Simkins explained that 'We had to protect the women and children of the State against the ignorance and lust of the negro office-holders.' He concluded his address, the Daily Texan reported, 'with eloquent praise of the South, and urged the young men present to be loyal to their homeland and their Nation.'...His exhortatory speeches about the Klan pre-date by at least one year the 1915 reinvention of the Klan in Georgia; Texas might compete with Georgia as to which state deserves credit for the rebirth of the Klan."
So of course, when the Brown v. Board of Education rules in favor of desegregating schools in 1954, what does the University of Texas do? Name a new law school/grad school dorn after this guy. Nice intimidation...but the real travesty that hasn't garnered as much controversy is their "admissions" policy:
"The narrower plan for admissions that [Dean of Admissions Henry Y.] McCown suggested on May 1954—nine days after the Brown decision—included requiring that African-American students seeking admission to undergraduate professional programs first spend a year taking required courses at either Prairie View University or Texas Southern University. McCown explained to Wilson that the 'procedures for handling admissions for the Graduate School are well established as we have had many applicants for graduate work. In the undergraduate area,' he noted, 'we have not accepted any Negro applicants for work in the professional fields except in Law.' Because of Brown, he predicted—correctly as it turned out—there will be 'added interest in [African-American] undergraduates gaining admission.' McCown suggested that 'we should give some consideration to the procedures for admission of undergraduates.' Here, he explicitly expressed his goal and suggested a plan. 'If we want to exclude as many Negro undergraduates as possible,' he offered, 'we could require applicants for professional work not offered at Texas Southern University or Prairie View to first enroll in one of the Negro schools and take at least one year of the academic work required for all degrees.' McCown then revealed the fear that he sought to allay: 'This will keep Negroes out of most classes where there are a large number of girls.' If McCown could push African-American students in undergraduate professional degree programs to black universities for the coursework required of all undergraduates, then the young white women in classes such as Freshman English would not have to share classroom space with African-American men, nor would white men have to compete with the African-American men."
Oh, so slick! Of course, we are talking about Texas in the 1950s, so this isn't a big shock here. Things gradually changed over time (albeit that doesn't mean they've been FIXED). What I picked up from this is two things:
1) The ignorance we have in having parts of history forgotten over time. As Russell wrote:
"In addition to the two portraits of Professor Simkins, the law school also has a brass bust of Professor Simkins. The provenance of this sculpture is unknown. For most of the 1990s when I taught at The University of Texas, the bust adorned the reference desk of the Tarlton Law Library. Students used to pat Simkins’s head and rub his nose for good luck, just as visitors to Florence rub the snout of the boar sculpture Il Porcellino to guarantee a return visit to that great Renaissance city. The law students generally had no idea who Professor Simkins was, and the bust remained on the reference desk until a newly hired librarian of color with a sense of history insisted on its removal."
This is example #998746453 (a minor one) why we need to stop thinking that because extreme forms of racism happened on a mass level a long time ago, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't care about what happened, and it doesn't mean that we shouldn't care about the fact that it still exists today, and we help to facilitate it with our lack of knowledge and action!
Ahem...on to point...
2)From
the words of the author himself (emphasis done by me):
"Since a university professor gave my paper to a television reporter in early May, a controversy has raged on the easier issue of the dorm's name. Initially, UT administrators resisted renaming, but last Friday, UT President William Powers announced that he will ask the regents to rename the dorm."
Texas: an "Everything is Bigger" reason why...America is Racist!
