California Governor Newsom Approves Name Change Of Law School Founded By Racist
A prominent San Francisco law school named after a known racist will be renamed after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation approving the move.
The University of California’s Hastings College of the Law has been renamed the College of the Law, San Francisco. According to the Associated Press, the school was previously named for Serranus Clinton Hastings, a wealthy rancher and former chief justice of the California Supreme Court who helped orchestrate and finance campaigns by white settlers in Mendocino County to kill and enslave members of the Yuki Indian tribe.
The law school boasts graduates including Vice President Kamala Harris and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
The name change is part of a series of bills Newsom signed into law Sep. 21 focused on indigenous people; he declared the date “Native American Day” in California. Other legislation includes renaming a law library at the school and removing an offensive term for Native American women from all geographic features and place names in California.
The U.S. government has already removed the offensive term from nearly 650 geographic features.
