Overwhelming support for renaming expressed at town hall meeting held in BK Roberts Hall

A law student addresses the FSU renaming committee during the town hall meeting at BK Roberts Hall.

A law student addresses the FSU renaming committee during the town hall meeting at BK Roberts Hall.

About 25 students and alumni spoke out in support of renaming the building at the public forum held this morning in the FSU law school's BK Roberts Hall.  While the support for the renaming was overwhelming, a couple speakers argued against the change.  The speakers were about evenly split between whites and blacks; mainly FSU law students with one alumnus.

The main theme of most comments was that BK Roberts name on the building was inappropriate given his past support of segregation, notwithstanding his good deeds and his efforts to get the law school up and running.  Opponents stressed changing the name now would be a misguided attempt to erase or rewrite history, or take away a tool for teaching and learning from the past.

Several black law students noted that they made the decision to attend FSU because of information disseminated by the law school indicating blacks would be welcomed.  However, once they became students and discovered BK Roberts's history of defending segregation (not mentioned during orientation or recruiting), the message seemed contrary to being welcome and made them feel like outsiders.  The name gives them the feeling black people don't matter at FSU, and gives the impression that BK Roberts's segregationist views are synonymous with those of FSU.

Some students pointed out that BK Roberts deserved some sort of recognition such as a plaque inside the building, but his name on the building was bestowing too high an honor on an undeserving person.  Others pointed out the name makes FSU seem like it is anti-minority and opposed to inclusiveness, and will keep people of color from coming to FSU in the future.

A few students felt misled by FSU, observing that before committing to attend the law school they reviewed several schools and crossed some off the list due to perceived links with past racism, but that FSU seemed acceptable since the school was welcoming and that prominent black alumni who represented people like Trayvon Martin were part of FSU's recruiting sales pitch.  These students felt duped once they committed to FSU and discovered only after the fact that the school building was named for a prominent segregationist.

Several law students dressed in black to show solidarity in support of renaming BK Roberts Hall.

Several law students dressed in black to show solidarity in support of renaming BK Roberts Hall.

The school alumnus who spoke noted he was at the dedication ceremony for BK Roberts Hall in 1974 but that his segregationist past was not mentioned as part of the official ceremony, and those who tried to bring up the subject were ostracized and subjected to ridicule.  He felt BK Roberts name on the building today diminished the law school and its reputation.  He also noted that when it was created in 1966, FSU essentially stole FAMU's law school since the line items in the state budget were simply transferred from the closing FAMU school to the opening FSU school.

The two students who spoke against the renaming acknowledged BK Roberts's dark past but one thought it was improper to rewrite history and a better solution would be to keep BK Roberts name on the building and balance it out by naming the adjoining library building for Virgil Hawkins.  The second felt removing Roberts's name was an ill-advised effort to bury the past and it would be better to keep the name and use it as a teaching tool to help current students learn about the need to fight racism.  Other students countered that changing the name would not bury history, but would be making new history, and that FSU itself had changed its name several times over the years to keep abreast with changes in society and its student body.

The committee held another town hall meeting at the FSU Alumni Center Tuesday 2/27 and speakers also testified overwhelmingly in favor of changing the name of BK Roberts Hall, with only one of about 15 speakers defending the status quo.  Most speakers at this meeting, however, addressed the problems with honoring Francis Eppes, a former slave owner credited with founding FSU in the 1800s and now the subject of controversy after the criminology building was named for him and a statue of him was erected near the Westcott Building in his honor.  BK Roberts was not the main focus of the discussion, though I did speak for 10 minutes about why the law school building should be renamed.

Public forums coming

The FSU Committee on Renamings met again yesterday and I used my 3 minutes to again urge them to take BK Roberts name off the law school.  I also submitted the 14 petitions submitted thru this website in favor of renaming the building.  I also noted that the overwhelming majority of those who submitted the petitions said BK Roberts name on the building makes them less likely to make a contribution to the law school.

The committee agreed to hold several public forums in the near future to obtain additional input, and while no specific dates were set, the target dates were for the last week in February and first week in March.

President Thrasher tells committee to hurry up

FSU President John Thrasher came to the renaming committee meeting Feb 2 and said he wants the group to prioritize recommendations on renaming BK Roberts Hall and the Frances Eppes building/statue, and save recommendations on other campus buildings for later.  FSU's lawyer also pointed out that since the legislature originally named the building for BK Roberts, only the legislature could change or remove the name.

I spoke to the committee and with my allotted 3-minutes stressed Roberts' segregationist past and his repeated failure to follow the orders of a higher court in defense of segregation made his name inappropriate for any public building, especially a hall of learning where students are taught how to be ethical attorneys.  I also mentioned that almost 90% of those who signed the on-line petition said Roberts name on the building made them less likely to make a donation to the law school.  Tallahassee Barristers President Matt Williams (Class of '13) also spoke in favor of renaming the building.

Tallahassee Barristers promise support

I attended meeting of Tallahassee Barristers (North Florida area black attorney association) 1/18/18 and gave a brief presentation on the campaign to rename BK Roberts Hall and the Barristers pledged to support the effort both as a group and individually.  Many members expressed interest in attending an upcoming meeting of the FSU renaming committee as did the president of the law school's Black Law Student Association (BLSA).  Ironically, the Barristers meeting was held in a classroom at BK Roberts Hall.

B.K. Roberts character questioned at committee meeting

  Attended 1/12/18 meeting of FSU committee and it went well, I gave another 3 minute presentation about why B.K. Roberts Hall should be renamed and tried to distinguish B.K. from the run of the mill segregationists of his era by stressing his ethical problems stemming from his refusal to follow the directions from the U.S. Supreme Court to admit Virgil Hawkins, which violated his oath as a justice to uphold and defend the constitution that requires obeying the orders of a higher court--making his name on the FSU law school where they teach legal ethics especially problematic.  Current FSU law student Daniel Clibbon also spoke in support of the renaming.   A presentation to the committee by an FSU archivist noted several buildings were under review and that B.K. Roberts had a history of questionable character because some of his friendships interfered with his official court business and gave the appearance of impropriety.  Committee indicated a preference to come up with a renaming policy that would cover all buildings before examining any specific building renamings.  Next meetings were set for Feb 2 and Feb 14, with a separate town hall style meeting TBA.

   Also, after many hours of teaching myself web design I finished the Rename B.K. Roberts Hall Now! website and it was ready to go public.  I gave committee members a handout with the web address and asked them to consult that for facts about the B.K. Roberts story, and handed out cards with the web address to attendees including Byron Dobson from the Tallahassee Democrat and Erika Fernandez from WCTV Channel 6.  Also got the first few responses to the website's online petition with three people so far supporting the renaming of B.K. Roberts Hall, with one suggestion to rename it after Virgil Hawkins and another to rename it after Justice Joseph Hatchett, Florida's first black Supreme Court justice.