After a formal review process lasting four months, officials at UC Berkeley announced the removal of the names on two of its buildings on Wednesday.
LeConte Hall, comprised of a north and south wing housing the physics department, and the social sciences-oriented Barrows Hall, which also houses campus radio station KALX, will be renamed because of their namesakes’ racist and white supremacist legacies.
Nineteenth-century science professor Joseph LeConte came from a slave-owning confederate family and used scientific language to promote racist ideas. LeConte's brother, John, also taught science at the university and shared similar ideas. Both brothers served the South in the Civil War.
"Despite their service to the university, the brothers’ words and deeds profoundly conflict with our values, and with our commitment to equity, inclusion and a true sense of belonging for every member of our community," wrote UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ in a statement on Wednesday.
David Prescott Barrows was UC president from 1919 to 1923, and was also a white supremacist. A participant on the front lines of U.S. colonialism in the Philippines, he peppered his writings with dehumanizing statements about people of color.
"Barrows' words and actions were anti-Black, anti-Filipinx, anti-Indigenous, xenophobic and Anglocentric” and “advanced the interests of white supremacy,” the proposal to un-name Barrows Hall stated.