B.K. Roberts Hall at FSU's law school is named for a segregationist justice who defied the U.S. Supreme Court to deny admission to a law student because he was black. Please help us convince the Florida Legislature to rename the building for a more appropriate person.

Roberts

The main classroom building at the College of Law of Florida State University was named "B.K. Roberts Hall" by the Florida Legislature in 1973, based on the role Roberts played founding the school in the 1960s. Not mentioned, however, was the fact Roberts as Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court wrote several 1950s opinions that kept blacks, including Virgil Hawkins, out of Florida’s public law schools—

Hawkins

even after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Florida to let him in. Having a law school building named for a judge who violated his ethical duty to follow the orders of a higher court is reprehensible; for a judge who did it to preserve segregation is indefensible.

Today, someone with a past like Roberts simply does not deserve to have his name on any public building. Year after year FSU students, faculty, deans, presidents and its board of trustees have demanded a change. However, since the Legislature put Roberts’ name on the building, only the Legislature can remove it, and despite several years of lobbying the Legislature has not done so.

Please help us persuade the Legislature to rename the building so that FSU is not the last place in the Southeast with a building named for a defender of segregation. Let’s rename it for a more deserving person who does not have a history of fighting to keep blacks out of Florida’s public schools and unethically defying the orders of a higher court in order to defend segregation.

For the whole story, read on.