It seems as though the discussion of race on college campuses is not slowing down. Last week we had a town hall at UNC, moderated by Clarence Page. This morning's Inside Higher Ed has a story about campus protests regarding racism migrating to talk about Thomas Jefferson. There are protests about Jefferson statues at both the University of Missouri and William and Mary. Law professors Annette Gordon-Reed and Paul Finkelman figure prominently in the article. Gordon-Reed was quoted in the article:
I understand why some people think his statues should be removed, but not all controversial figures of the past are created equal ... I think Jefferson’s contributions to the history of the United States outweigh the problems people have with aspects of his life. He is just too much a part of the American story … to pretend that he was not there. This conversation about statues and symbols really got going with calls to take symbols and figures from the Confederacy out of the public sphere. Then it shifted to every famous person who was an enslaver and/or white supremacist, basically letting the Confederates off the hook. That's a lot of people to be disappeared. There is every difference in the world between being one of the founders of the United States and being a part of group of people who fought to destroy the United States.
Whenever talk turns to William and Mary, think about their president, Thomas R. Dew. He wrote an important and widely-read defense of slavery in the wake of the Nat Turner rebellion. The image is the Wren Building at William and Mary.
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