CLEVELAND — Some students are organizing to remove the name of a Founding Father from a Cleveland law school.
Along the Cleveland-Marshal College of Law Hall of Fame, there are many names Stephanie Goggins looks up to.
“It’s affirming that not only can I be a lawyer, can I be successful here, but I can be very successful,” said Goggins.
But the name that stands out the most to the army veteran isn’t an alum, it’s the person the school is named for. It’s a name she said she sees every time she walks in the building.
“Disappointed, disappointed, but not surprised. There’s this song by John Mayer, he said ‘we’re waiting on the world to change.’ I’m tired of waiting, you know?” she said.
John Marshall was the fourth and longest-serving chief justice in U.S. history. He was also a Founding Father and secretary of state. Some consider him the most influential Supreme Court justice in history, with contributions such as judicial review. Some historians say Marshall believed slavery was evil, opposed the slave trade and even represented abolitionist Robert Pleasants, who wanted to carry out his father’s will and free about 90 slaves.
But Marshall himself owned a plantation and hundreds of slaves during his lifetime. He also had concerns about large-scale emancipation, worrying that free African-Americans might rise in revolution.
As a member of Students Against Marshall, Goggins made her case to remove his name from the school to city council.
“I fear that if I don’t speak up, or we as SAM do not speak up, I would be complicit in my own oppression,” Goggins said to council. “Chief Justice Marshall was a brilliant legal mind, and he conceived what we know as judicial review. However, he was also a brutal slaver, and he went out of his way to be intentionally oppressive and cruel to litigants.”
Goggins has joined forces with students like Emily Forsee, who became passionate about the project after reading about Marshall’s slave history in Paul Finkelman’s book “Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court,” which dives into figures like Marshall’s slave ownership.
“This man really, regardless of any contributions he made, was really a criminal, and I even had misgivings about coming here and entering this school,” said Forsee.
There has been no organized opposition to removing the name.
But in a Cleveland.com roundtable on the topic, columnists Ted Diadiun spoke out.
“The squeaky wheels are relentlessly going through our schools, buildings, statues and monuments, eradicating the founders who unfortunately didn’t or couldn’t resist the culture of the time. To compare Thurgood Marshall’s contributions to our democracy with John Marshall’s is preposterous, but we all know how this will end … nobody has the courage to stand against the tide,” said Diadiun.
Turning Point USA is a conservative group that advocates on high school and college campuses.
“The irony of the Cleveland City Council’s unanimous motion is that black voices, like mine and all those who uphold Marshall’s positive legacy and contributions to American rule-of-law, are not to be tolerated by Cleveland’s current leaders,” said Turning Point USA Contributor Stephen Davis in a statement. “We cannot sit by while the mob cancels our forefathers for past sins. Instead, we should understand their legacies in their totality and with proper historical context while celebrating their enduring contributions to the greatest nation in history,”
But as the school hears from students and alumni, Goggins hopes the name will soon come down.
“There’s been a pandemic for two years, people are done. But we still have to keep making progress in these important areas. Otherwise, are we America or not?” asked Goggins.