Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Protesters at UA call for removal of statue, cite civil rights record
FAYETTEVILLE — About 120 people marched on the University of Arkansas campus at an anti-racism rally Saturday, chanting for the removal of a statue of former U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright.
Black student leaders led the racially diverse group of demonstrators and called for more support through faculty hires and more student recruitment at a campus where Black students make up about 4.5% of total enrollment.
“We gathered together today for one mission: the establishment of an anti-racist University of Arkansas,” Dana McGee, a UA law student, told the crowd.
Fulbright, perhaps best known for introducing legislation in 1945 that created the international educational exchange program named after him, has been criticized for his record on civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. Fulbright worked with other Southern Democrats to block the racial integration of schools and later participated in a filibuster against civil rights legislation.
Historians also note Fulbright’s efforts to promote world peace and as an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam. The Fulbright educational exchange program has been praised as the largest and most well-known such program in existence. Fulbright also was a former president of the University of Arkansas and a UA graduate.
“Hey-ho, hey-ho, Fulbright has got to go,” went one chant Saturday.
The university last year established a committee to consider his legacy on campus and that of another historical figure, former Arkansas Gov. Charles Brough, for his role in the 1919 Elaine Massacre. Some details remain unclear about the 1919 massacre, but historians agree that an unknown number of Black residents were killed without justification by white mobs.
Brough, as governor, authorized soldiers to be deployed to the area, and there is “anecdotal evidence” that the troops also killed Black people in the area indiscriminately, according to the Central Arkansas Library System Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Brough then relied on white informants and appointed a commission that was not asked to investigate the deaths but was instead tasked with “trying to prevent future such occurrences,” according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas also notes that Brough is rated by some historians “as among the state’s best governors.”
The Fulbright statue on campus was dedicated in 2002, and UA in 1981 renamed its arts and sciences college in honor of Fulbright. A student dining hall is named after Brough.
The university committee reviewing the leaders’ legacy includes some students and began meeting in August but has yet to announce any recommendation.
Todd Shields, dean of UA’s Fulbright College, in a video interview posted online by the university Feb. 25, said the committee members were “trying to do everything they can to reach consensus.” He has said the committee’s recommendation will go to Chancellor Joe Steinmetz, and any changes will require action by the 10-person University of Arkansas board of trustees.
McGee, not a member of the committee reviewing Fulbright and Brough, on Saturday said she also attended UA as an undergraduate. She described being “tired of talking” and “tired of joining committee after committee after committee in hope that something will change or someone will listen.”
By last July, an online petition promoted by some Black student leaders seeking the removal of the Fulbright statue and his name from the arts and sciences college had more then 6,000 signatures, although it is unclear how many who signed are part of the university community.
McGee urged the crowd to “join the fight for the removal of all racist symbols and statues from the University of Arkansas.”
Several other student organizers also addressed the crowd.
“We must be anti-racist. I believe the way to do that is to rid the university of [Fulbright’s] racist effigy, but also of its structural discrepancies that continuously promote institutional racism,” said Tyrah Jackson, a junior studying anthropology, criminology and English.
She called for more scholarships to help Black students and for more Black staff members to be hired.
In Saturday’s crowd, William Reid, a junior studying criminology and sociology, said that walking by the Fulbright statue doesn’t sit well with him given the former senator’s segregationist stance.
“It just kind of makes me a little mad that he’s given all this credit and all this recognition around campus, yet he has horrible views around people like me who are in the college that his name is on,” said Reid, who is Black.