Black students at UA call for removal of Fulbright statue; college name

[LiberalArkie]

BY Max Brantley ON June 30, 202012:13 pm

Link to tweet

Thanks to John Brummett for calling

my attention to a movement among Black University of Arkansas students to remove the statue of former Sen. J. William Fulbright from campus and to strip his name from the college of arts and sciences.

The senator, whose name identifies a global scholarship program, is infamously remembered for signing the Southern Manifesto in opposition to the landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down segregated public schools. He also filibustered civil rights legislation and voted against the 1965 voting rights act. By the account of biographer Randall Woods (I got his name wrong initially), Fulbright believed education would eventually eradicate prejudice. By various accounts, he provided behind-the-scenes support to some civil rights efforts and opposed the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Harold Carswell, a civil rights foe. Still, I recall, but can’t locate, a TV interview following his defeat by Dale Bumpers in which he didn’t seem to distance himself much from his undistinguished past on civil rights.

UPDATE: James Craig Barnes, then anchor for KTHV sent me a transcript of the relevant portion of his interview with Fulbright in 1974. It’s interesting.

Snip

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2020/06/30/black-students-at-ua-call-for-removal-of-fulbright-statue-college-name