UW-Madison ramps up debate on public spaces named for alumni who belonged to KKK group

Impassioned pleas came from both sides Wednesday in a UW-Madison forum on whether to scrub from spaces in the university’s student union the names of two prominent alumni who, while students, belonged to a campus group called “Ku Klux Klan.”

The Wisconsin Union Council, the governing body of UW-Madison’s Memorial Union, held the first of two public forums regarding spaces named for Academy Award-winning actor Fredric March and art historian Porter Butts, the first director of the Memorial Union. A play circle in the Union is named for March, and an art gallery for Butts.

Rena Yehuda Newman was among the speakers at Wednesday’s forum who called for renaming the spaces.

“To not remove this name is to condone an ongoing historical wrong,” Newman said.

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