Forefront

Name Removed,
History Remembered

Unnaming Boalt Hall highlights the value of process and community

LL.M. student Alan Gao viewing a new display
HISTORY LESSON: LL.M. student Alan Gao views a new display documenting how the Boalt name evolved at the law school and why it was removed. Photo by Rachel DeLetto
In January 2020, UC Berkeley unnamed Boalt Hall due to the racist views of 19th century Oakland attorney and building namesake John Henry Boalt. It marks just one step of several the law school is taking to examine, not simply erase, Boalt’s legacy at Berkeley Law — and to further a sense of belonging for its increasingly diverse community.

Boalt’s virulent anti-Asian racism fueled existing national prejudice against Chinese immigrants. He also made isolated racist remarks about Africans brought to the United States as slaves and about Native Americans.

A new hallway display in Berkeley Law’s North Addition contextualizes how the Boalt name’s role on campus has evolved over time. The installation includes timeline information, photos of and quotes from those helping to create change at Berkeley, and QR codes viewers can scan to access documents related to the unnaming.

“Especially as we’re moving from virtual classes to learning in place, this idea of a sense of place becomes so much more obvious,” says Berkeley Law staffer gar Russell, a member of the 2018 committee Dean Erwin Chemerinsky assembled to research Boalt’s writings and beliefs and to recommend a response. “The environment in which we exist matters. When we return to these halls, there’s an opportunity to create community.”

In 1951, when the school moved from its first home (in what today is Durant Hall) to a new facility, the UC Regents renamed it UC Berkeley School of Law; “Boalt Hall” was given to the main classroom wing. But for decades, many incorrectly referred to the entire building complex, and often the law school itself, as Boalt Hall. Graduates were routinely called “Boalties.”

Attorney and Berkeley Law lecturer Charles Reichmann discovered Boalt’s views in 2017 at a campus library while researching the Asian experience in California, prompting Chemerinsky to launch an investigation. The resulting December 2018 report was reviewed by UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ’s Building Name Review Committee, which voted unanimously in fall 2019 to unname Boalt Hall. Christ and UC President Michael Drake agreed.

The new display notes that Boalt’s wife, Elizabeth, contributed to the first law school building in memory of her husband. Her portrait hangs in Berkeley Law’s Charles A. Miller lobby.

Professor Leti Volpp was the committee’s faculty representative and lead drafter of its final report.

“All of these changes endeavor toward a more inclusive environment for marginalized or underrepresented students,” says student representative Cheyenne Overall ’19.

Building Name Review Committee Chair Paul Fine hopes to see more projects reckon with racist legacies at three other campus sites that have recently been unnamed.

“Simply taking a name from a building is only an important first step, and the university needs to follow through with more substantive actions,” he says. “I am glad Berkeley Law is doing this, and I hope that there will soon be other actions taken for the other buildings.”

—Edited from a Berkeley News article by Gretchen Kell

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