Just about every part of FSU—from the student senate, faculty senate, law school faculty and administration, specially appointed review committee, president’s office, and the board of trustees—has come out in favor of removing BK Roberts name, saying a building named for an avowed segregationist judge who openly defied the the Supreme Court to keep blacks out of Florida schools does not comport with the university’s core values.

It started after former FSU President John Thrasher condemned an outbreak of violence during a protest against the appearance of a white supremacist in Charlottesville Virginia in August 2017 when he formed a committee to review FSU's names and markers.

In July 2018, the Presidents Advisory Panel on University Namings and Recognitions unanimously recommended FSU seek legislative action to remove B.K. Roberts’ name from the law school building, and Thrasher announced he would accept and promote the decision before the Florida legislature—the only body with the ultimate authority to change the name.

Thrasher noted that to keep Roberts’ name on the law school would continue to honor someone whose decisions and actions do not reflect the university’s values or the rule of law, and that the name is a painful reminder of Florida’s segregationist history and highly offensive to many in the community. Thrasher also noted that the name celebrates a man who defied the highest court in the land and does so at the very place on campus where the rule of law is taught. Instead, Roberts’ contributions to the founding of the school should be recognized by a display within the law school instead of by his name on the building. The full text of Thrasher’s statement can be found here.

The FSU Faculty Senate in June 2020 voted unanimously to support renaming the building for someone other than Roberts. The same month more than 50 faculty and administrators at the FSU law school—including the dean—published an open letter to the legislature calling for renaming the building, calling the Roberts name on the building “shameful” and “deeply painful and offensive.” In August 2020, the FSU Board of Trustees also came out in favor of renaming the building, stating that honoring the man who “openly defied the US Supreme Court in steadfastly resisting the integration of Florida’s public law schools” did not reflect “FSU’s core values of justice, equality, compassion and respect.”

Despite several years of lobbying by Thrasher, his office, and others, the legislature has not passed a name change measure. Thrasher retired in 2021 and current FSU President Richard McCollough is expected to continue the efforts to convince the legislature to rename BK Roberts Hall.