Students Ask for Immediate Removal of John Marshall's Name from CSU Law School

A working group of CSU Law School students calling themselves "Students Against Marshall" sent a formal request Tuesday to the school's dean, Lee Fisher, and the naming committee he chairs asking that former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall's name be immediately removed from the law school.

"Our single objective," read the letter to the 29-member Naming Committee, "is for the CSU Board of Trustees to remove the name of this slave master who built his wealth through ownership of human beings, from all aspects of the law college prior to the Spring 2022 Commencement, ensuring no other C|M|Law student graduates with the name of a brutal slave owner on their diploma."

Students had been individually petitioning school leadership to make such a change in recent years, mobilized by the national reckoning with race in the wake of George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis Police in 2020. Many of the arguments were advanced in guest columns in this publication.

Fisher formed the naming committee at the behest of CSU President Harlan Sands. With representatives from the student body, faculty and alumni, the committee was tasked with making a recommendation to the university's board of trustees—keep the name or don't—and then with proposing an alternate name if necessary. Current students say they've been frustrated by the lack of the committee's progress.

Read more: https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2022/01/19/students-ask-for-immediate-removal-of-john-marshalls-name-from-csu-law-school