University of Richmond Told To Put Money Where Woke Mouth Is

University of Richmond Told To Put Money Where Woke Mouth Is

University of Richmond Told To Put Money Where Woke Mouth Is

Virtue-signaling should have some costs, right? After all, if one wishes to talk the talk, then shouldn’t one walk the walk? That is what the University of Richmond is being told to do by the direct descendant of the man their law school was named for – until they took his name off it.

The University of Richmond used to have the T.C. Williams School of Law. According to history, he was both a school trustee and a donor, which led to his name being on the law school. And for well over a hundred years, the university was happy to take the Williams’ estate’s money. That is, until the “Year Zero” wokeists showed up on campus.

Williams was a wealthy 19th-century businessman who owned tobacco companies, a graduate, and trustee of the University of Richmond. Williams’ family donated $25,000 to fund the law school following his death.”

However, despite Williams’s estate regularly donating to the university, the T.C. Williams School of Law was stripped of its name.”

The University of Richmond School of Law voted to adopt a policy that prohibits the university from naming any building, program, professorship or entity “for a person who directly engaged in the trafficking and/or enslavement of others or openly advocated for the enslavement of people.”

The university had found that Williams was a slave owner.”

Records show that Williams’ businesses were taxed on owning 25 to 40 enslaved people. The university said personal tax records for Williams show that he was taxed on owning three enslaved people.”

So the university took the T.C. Williams name off the law school. Fine, says his great-great-grandson. We are happy to take the money back, since you don’t seem to want it.

In a five-page letter sent on January 30th to University of Richmond President Kevin Hallock, (Virginia lawyer Robert C.) Smith challenged the president to “demonstrate” their virtue by giving all the money back.”

Smith said the university could write a note for the remaining $300 million “providing that it is secured by all the campus buildings and all your woke faculty pledge their personal assets and guarantee the note.”

“We know in 1888, he gave $10,000 to re-establish the Law School and at his death in 1889 his estate contributed $25,000 to the Law School,” Smith wrote. “A conservative estimate of these gifts, just from the end of the War to his death exceeds $65,000.”

Smith continued, “The university’s endowment is $3.3 billion. Since you and your activists went out of your way to discredit the Williams name, and since presumably the Williams family’s money is tainted, demonstrate your ‘virtue’ and give it all back.”

“I suggest you immediately turn over the entire $3.3 billion endowment to the current descendants of T.C. Williams, Sr. We will use it all to fulfill the charitable purposes to which it was intended. We will take a note back for the remaining $300 million, providing that it is secured by all the campus buildings and all your woke faculty pledge their personal assets and guarantee the note,” he added.”

Smith wrote a letter back in October when the university removed his great-great-grandfather’s name off the law school, pointing out the school’s hypocrisy in keeping the money while trashing his family. In the more recent letter, Smith brings the receipts on his family history, and points out that the university could have avoided this entire problem if they weren’t so openly trying to pander to the woke students and faculty by simply changing the person the law school was named for.

T.C. Williams, Jr. was born in 1864 and died in 1929. It was said of him that “his life was guided by the principles that education and religion meant the most for mankind, and in this regard his two biggest loves were his church ( First Baptist) and the University of Richmond.” He attended Richmond College in 1882-83. He became a trustee in 1889 and served in this capacity for 40 years. He later became Chairman of the Executive Committee where he devoted himself to the finances and investments of the college on an almost daily basis. He of course received no compensation for his efforts. During very difficult financial times on the eve of the First World War, the university was moving its campus from the City of Richmond to its present Westhampton campus. Facing tremendous financial problems that could have bankrupted the University, T.C., Jr. *guaranteed all of the university’s debts with its lenders.* (emphasis in the original) Not only is he solely responsible for the Westhampton campus, but the school could have easily gone bankrupt without his loving efforts.”

It is clear that woke activists at the University orchestrated a “Tony Soprano” hit on the Williams family. You won’t release any of the documents we have requested because it will expose this deceit. Radical Leftists hate people of accomplishment; they are jealous of them, and therefore they must be destroyed. The Williams family represents everything the Left hates; religious, upright, learned, accomplished and wealthy. The Law School was not named the T.C. Williams, Sr. Law School. If your board had any gratitude, it could have easily left well enough alone as certainly T.C. Williams, Jr. had no “connection to slavery.” Indeed, the 1934 Law School catalogue contains a full-page portrait of T.C. Williams, Jr. and lists him as its “chief benefactor.”

And while Smith’s campaign to have the university return the money hasn’t got much attention in the media, it has gotten some.

Now, is Smith and the rest of the Williams family descendants likely to see a dime returned to them, or even an apology? It’s highly unlikely. Is it worth it for Smith to even be bringing this up? Absolutely YES. As he notes in his letter, his family were quite loyal to the university, donating not just money, but also library and art collections. As the university has remained silent, and Smith is quite specific in pointing out the collections that the university holds that were donated by T.C. Williams and later members of the family, we can only assume that these donations are easily verifiable. Perhaps if the University of Richmond is feeling strapped for cash, they could just give back the books and art? Smith might not see any returns, but by God, he is going to make things as uncomfortable as possible for the administration for chickening out and not finding another way to honor a family that has bankrolled the school in the past. And good for him for speaking up. This kind of history shaming and erasure by those who think that we are the most enlightened generation to have ever lived is disgusting.

I sincerely hope, for the law school and university’s sake, that the current crop of woke alumni that they are currently churning out feel the same depth of loyalty as the now-discarded Williams family once did. After all, do you think the Williams family will continue to donate to the school in any form? Do you think that other past alumni feel like donating now, when they can clearly see how past legacies have been scorned and set aside? I sure wouldn’t. The University of Richmond better hope that their woke graduates are not only loyal to their alma mater, but make enough money off that law degree (or any other degree) to then give back to the school. Despite that large endowment, I think that they might find it hard to keep supporting themselves in the future.

Being woke and taking the money and running might not cost the University of Richmond anything but its reputation now, but it will likely extract a large price in the future. I hope they, and other woke colleges, enjoy the bed they’ve made.

Featured image: University of Richmond T.C. Williams School of Law as seen in January 2016 via Snapper Tams on Wikimedia Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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3 Comments
  • Cameron says:

    In an ideal world, the schools would tell the angry children that they will happily stop taking money if they can replace it all.

  • Kevin says:

    I agree. The University of Richmond should give it back after wiping Mr. Williams’ name off the building. $35,000 (the $10,000 and $25,000 donated) in 1889 is worth …. $1,138,146 in 2023; not $3.3 billion. I’m sure there’s a donor out there who supports this move and would be happy to donate the $1.39 million to the University of Richmond.

  • random observer says:

    I agree there’s room for argument about the correct inflation adjustment even when all past donations are taken into account, but, of course, he is entirely right to retaliate against this insult to his family, the ingratitude of an institution long a beneficiary of same, and in general the childishness of the entire movement.

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