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TULSA, Okla. (AP) — University of Tulsa trustees are deciding whether to rename the law school because of one founder's ties to the Ku Klux Klan, a proposal that was lauded Tuesday by a civil rights group.
Trustees at the private school will discuss whether to remove John Rogers' name from the law school building during a meeting Wednesday, trustee Sharon Bell told The Associated Press. Bell — an attorney and the daughter of Rogers' late law partner, William H. Bell — said school administrators have recommended the name be removed, and trustees could vote on the proposal after any discussion.
Rogers was a prominent attorney and philanthropist who helped found the law school in 1943, served for years as its unpaid dean and was a university trustee for decades.
Rogers also helped incorporate the KKK-affiliated Tulsa Benevolent Association, which was founded months after the 1921 Tulsa race riot that left about 300 black residents dead and a thriving section of downtown — known as Black Wall Street — decimated.
Rogers spent about two years in the KKK, which was so popular in Oklahoma that at one point about two-thirds of the state Legislature were members, and politicians running for office actively sought the group's backing.
School administrators recently commissioned a review of all campus buildings named after individuals and Rogers' name was the only one that was flagged as problematic in a report prepared earlier this year, Bell said.
A school spokeswoman declined to offer any details of Wednesday's meeting, saying only in a statement that "after intensive study and thoughtful deliberation," administrators have made a recommendation to the executive committee of the trustees board.
Nationally, universities and cities, sensitive to the issue of race, have conducted similar reviews. In 2013, Tulsa City Council members voted to rename Tulsa's glitzy arts district, which had been named after Wyatt Tate Brady, the son of a Confederate veteran and KKK member. Today the street is still called Brady, but for the Civil War photographer Mathew Brady.
The proposal to remove Rogers' name was applauded Tuesday by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"I think any time that we find a racist element in our society, in general, we have an obligation to confront those issues and an obligation to make things right," said Garland Pruitt, president of the NAACP's Oklahoma City branch. "If we know of a bad apple and we ignore it and we don't address it, we're just as guilty."
Bell plans to vote against the recommendation, saying that Rogers renounced his membership in the KKK and dedicated the rest of his life to public service.
"The man I knew was not a racist," Bell said in an interview Tuesday. "He had 58 years of learning from his error and moving forward in a way that clearly left the community of Tulsa a better place."
Bob Blackburn, the executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, said he is generally reluctant about moves to change buildings named for people with similar ties as Rogers because it erases a part of history.
"We need to know about the racism, we need to know about the foundation blocks on which we are building a new Oklahoma today, but if we don't understand those foundations, we run the risk of committing those same mistakes," Blackburn said.
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