University of Texas considers renaming residence hall

May 20, 2010
Housing facility is named for former professor who was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan

From The Austin American-Statesman: Simkins Residence Hall, the last all-male student housing at the University of Texas in Austin, is named for a law professor who was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. William Stewart Simkins, who taught at the School of Law for 30 years until his death in 1929, organized the Klan in Florida after the Civil War along with his brother, Eldred. Now, 55 years after opening the residence hall, the university is about to begin a review that could remove Simkins' name from the building.

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