Potential Backfire on Woke Activists

[Kansan]

Saw this on FOX News.  It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.  I think the guy has a valid argument.

Descendant of donor demands law school pay back $3.6 billion after 'woke activists' stripped school name

A descendant of a major donor to a law school demanded that the institution pay back $3.6 billion after a decision was made to change the school name.

Virginia lawyer Robert C. Smith is the great-great-grandson of T.C. Williams, the name behind the University of Richmond’s T.C. Williams School of Law.

Williams was a wealthy 19th-century businessman who owned tobacco companies, a graduate, and trustee of the University of Richmond. William’s family donated $25,000 to fund the law school following his death.

However, despite Williams's estate regularly donating to the university, the T.C. Williams School of Law was stripped of its name. 

The University of Richmond School of Law voted to adopt a policy that prohibits the university from naming any building, 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 university had found that Williams was a slave owner.

Records show that William’s businesses were taxed on owning 25 to 40 enslaved people. The university said personal tax records for Williams show that he was taxed on owning three enslaved people. 

Smith pushes back against the move to de-name the law school, claiming that the university is caving to "woke activists" and would not exist without the $3.6 billion amount of financial contribution from generations of Williams’ family members. 

In a five-page letter sent on January 30th to University of Richmond President Kevin Hallock, Smith challenged the president to "demonstrate" their virtue by giving all the money back.

Smith said the university could write a note for the remaining $300 million "providing that it is secured by all the campus buildings and all your woke faculty pledge their personal assets and guarantee the note."

"We know in 1888, he gave $10,000 to re-establish the Law School and at his death in 1889 his estate contributed $25,000 to the Law School," Smith wrote. "A conservative estimate of these gifts, just from the end of the War to his death exceeds $65,000."

Smith continued, "The university’s endowment is $3.3 billion. Since you and your activists went out of your way to discredit the Williams name, and since presumably the Williams family’s money is tainted, demonstrate your ‘virtue’ and give it all back."

"I suggest you immediately turn over the entire $3.3 billion endowment to the current descendants of T.C. Williams, Sr. We will use it all to fulfill the charitable purposes to which it was intended. We will take a note back for the remaining $300 million, providing that it is secured by all the campus buildings and all your woke faculty pledge their personal assets and guarantee the note," he added. 

Smith also said that the university could have kept its name if it attributes the law school to Williams’s son T.C. Williams Jr. instead.

 

 

https://www.foxnews.com/media/descendent-major-donor-demands-law-school-pay-back-3-6-billion-after-woke-decision-change-school-name

 

 

[DonF]

Thats a lot like saying families of former slaves should be paid  reparations . back wages for all the years their families were enslaved 
I take it ya thinkl thats a good idea as well ???

 

[Kansan]

I don't agree with reparations being paid to families of former slaves nor do I agree with the law school having to repay money that was given to fund the institution.  However, if the money was given to, and accepted by, the University to establish the T.C. Williams School of Law then the name should not be removed or changed.

[DonF]

pitt state has been renamed a number of times . at least twice in my life time 

building and road have had their names changed , 

i mean hell use to live off chicopee road  now its 530th ave, country club is 520th