A liberal arts university in Virginia is under fire for deciding to change the name of its law school after its namesake was discovered to be a slave owner.
One descendant of the man the school used to be named after, Robert Smith, wants the institution to pay back the billions of dollars the family has donated since his demise in the 1800s, calling the school’s leadership “shameful” and asserting in writing the institution buckled under the nation’s current climate of wokeness.
Smith’s ancestor is T.C. Williams.
Williams, a 19th-century businessman who owned tobacco companies, a graduate, and was once a trustee of the University of Richmond, was a huge benefactor of his alma mater. He also owned human beings, according to reports.
Upon his death, his family earmarked a significant contribution of $25,000 to the law school at the university in 1890, the equivalent of $821,895.60 in the 2023 economy. Since then, many in the family have continued the tradition of paying into the law school’s endowment.
Officials decided in recognition of the gift to rename the program to T.C. Williams School of Law in 1920.
However, after Census and local government records revealed Williams owned enslaved Africans, the school changed its name again.
According to the Washington Post, Williams’ businesses were taxed for owning 25 to 40 enslaved people and he, personally, was taxed for owning three.
In September 2022, the university’s board voted unanimously to change the name to the University of Richmond School of Law. Previously, in March 2021, the institution, as a result of its Race and Racism project, adopted a policy that prohibits the school from naming any building on campus, statute, library, program, professorship, or entity “for a person who directly engaged in the trafficking and/or enslavement of others or openly advocated for the enslavement of people.”
The Race and Racism project cataloged the school’s…
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