AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Four statues to Confederate leaders on the University of Texas campus could draw attention after the revelation that a dormitory carries the name of a Ku Klux Klan leader.
UT President William Powers Jr. next month is expected to receive recommendations on whether more than half-century old Simkins Residence Hall should be renamed.
Gregory Vincent, UT’s vice president for diversity, says members reporting to Powers will consider “campus imagery,” but for now the focus is Simkins Hall.
The Austin American-Statesman first reported last week that William Stewart Simkins, who taught law at UT for 30 years, was a KKK leader. The newspaper asked UT administrators about the residence hall’s name and several weeks after the release of a scholarly article examining Simkins, who died in 1929.
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