Berkeley Law Is Deeply Divided on 'Boalt' Name, Chemerinsky Says
The University of California, Berkeley School of Law dean discusses the movement to remove references to John Boalt from the law school, and why people on both sides feel so strongly about the issue.
September 14, 2018 at 01:43 PM
6 minute read
The University of California, Berkeley School of Law has been known colloquially as Boalt Hall for decades, but that name could soon disappear from the Bay Area campus after information surfaced about the racist past of John Boalt—a 19th century California lawyer who pushed for the Chinese Exclusion Act.
A law school committee this week recommended the removal of the Boalt Hall name from one of the school's four buildings and that other references to Boalt in student organizations and elsewhere be excised. (The committee did not recommend stripping the Boalt name from two endowed professorships, which would require the involvement of the California attorney general.)
Berkeley is not the first law school to confront the legacy of a racist namesake. In July, a panel at Florida State University recommended stripping the name of former Florida Supreme Court Justice B.K. Roberts from the Tallahassee school. Roberts resisted racial integration efforts from the bench throughout the 1950s. And Harvard Law School in 2016 decided to do away with its official seal because it featured elements of the family coat of arms of early donor and slaveholder Isaac Royall Jr.
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