The Florida legislature ended its 2021 session on April 30 without approving the bill that would have removed BK Roberts’ name from the main classroom building at the FSU College of Law. While HB 977 got off to a good start in early March, it died in committee when the session ended. The bill, sponsored by Tallahassee representatives Ramon Alexander and Allison Tant, was filed and referred to two committees in February and had its first reading before the full house on March 2. After those events it never got any farther, stalling out without getting a committee hearing.
While it is impossible to know exactly what happens behind the scenes in the legislature, lack of support from leadership is the most common explanation for a bill’s failure to advance. Lobbyists also pointed out widespread opposition to the “cancel culture” as a likely factor. In addition, the capitol building was closed to the public throughout the session due to the pandemic, preventing lobbyists and others from personally meeting with legislators to explain the background and need for changes as well as personally trying to persuade legislators to back a bill.
The name change idea enjoys overwhelming support from the FSU community due to Roberts' 1950s opinions as Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice that kept blacks out of state universities for years, even after the US Supreme Court had ordered an end to segregation in 1954 and in 1956 instructed Florida there was no reason for delay. At FSU the student and faculty senates, law school faculty and administration, board of trustees and President John Thrasher (retiring later this year) all endorsed the removal of the name from the building, saying honoring Roberts today did not fit in with the university's values of inclusion. The school feels Roberts' efforts to found the FSU law school in the 1960s, which were significant, would be more appropriately recognized by a contextual display inside the building rather than by his name on the edifice. Since the legislature named the building for Roberts in 1973, only the legislature has the power to remove the name.
The renaming measure has been filed annually in various forms since 2019 but has never passed, but that does not mean we are giving up. The next legislative session is scheduled for January 2022, so we will try again next year. Until then, I will be working with legislators, the FSU lobbyists and other supporters to try to come up with a new bill that will gain enough support to be successful. Danni