OSU may change name of Murray Hall
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State University could remove the name of Murray Hall and North Murray Hall in light of the “extreme” racist views of the buildings' namesake.
The Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents will vote on unnaming the buildings during a video conference meeting on Friday.
Chairman Tucker Link said the board of regents“fully intend” to remove the name.
The buildings bear the
name of former Oklahoma Gov. William “Alfalfa Bill” Murray, who served in office from 1931 to 1935.
OS UP resident Burns Hargis recommended the regents remove Murray's name because of his advocacy for racist policies, such as segregation and Jim Crow laws. Hargis said these policies effectively “stripped many Black Oklahomans of their constitutional right to vote.”
“For many in the OSU family, the building' s name has invoked reminders of this painful past,” Hargis said in a statement Wednesday. “Oklahoma State is committed to eliminating systemic racism and embracing our responsibility as a university to support solutions to the inequality and injustice our country and community faces.”
As Oklahoma' s first speaker of the House, Murray led the institution of Jim Crow laws and widespread segregation after Oklahoma obtained state hood. He openly expressed his belief in the inferiority of African Americans and Jews and later used racial slurs in his campaign for governor.
Students have advocated for several years to rename Murray Hall, which mostly houses offices and classrooms. More t han 5,000 people recently signed a petition on Change. org supporting a removal of his name.
"Governor Murray was also a racist, anti–Semitic, anti- education governor who was at the forefront of instituting Jim Crow laws and segregation in the state of Oklahoma," the petition stated.
The regents adopted a policy a year ago f or a formal process of name removals. The OSU Student Government Association has passed are solution supporting th eu n-n a ming, and the university' s Policy Review Committee of students, faculty, staff and alumni unanimously approved the name' s removal.
Hargisw ill bring his formal recommendation to the board of regents on Friday.
“The history associated with this building' s namesake has hurt many and is not consistent with our values of equality and justice for all,” Link said in a statement Wednesday.
Murray State College in Tishomingo is also named after the former Oklahoma governor.