Law Professor Triggers Renaming of Law School Building Honoring KKK Founder

It's a rare law review article that ignites intense public debate — a feat achieved by University of Denver Sturm College of Law professor Tom Russell's recent paper exploring the University of Texas' resistance to integration following the seminal Brown v. Board of Education ruling of 1954.

The academic paper recounted the university's decision that same year to name a dormitory after former Texas law professor William Stewart Simkins, who helped found the Ku Klux Klan in Florida following the Civil War. Russell's work prompted calls for the renaming of the dorm, which culminated with a proposal Friday by University President William Powers Jr. to change the name from Simkins Residence Hall to Creekside Dormitory.

University of Denver Sturm College of Law's Thomas Russell

"I like to say that most academic writing drops into the sea like a pebble," said Russell on Monday after penning an opinion piece for the popular Huffington Post Web site on the dorm controversy. "Is renaming a dorm really a big deal? Not in itself. What I wanted to provoke was a bigger conversation about race, history and the law."

There's no doubt that the paper was successful on that front, with the debate coming to fore in early May after a local television station did a story on Russell's paper. Newspapers including The Austin American-Statesman, The Daily Texan, and The San Antonio Express-News weighed in and favored renaming the building. Russell credits a multitude of Facebook postings, Tweets and blog posts with keep ...