Statue of Rice Founder to Be Relocated After Criticism of the University’s Racist Past

A statue memorializing Rice University’s founder will soon be relocated after years of complaints from students who said the school needed to examine its own history of racism.

The statue of William Marsh Rice currently sits in the middle of the campus’ Academic Quadrangle, but will now be moved to a new location with added historical context and information about the school’s founder — including the fact that he owned at least 15 slaves.

University officials plan to erect a new monument to commemorate the beginning of the school’s integration in the 1960s. {snip}

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William Marsh Rice chartered the university in 1891 exclusively for white students — a policy that remained in place until 1965. The school also briefly allowed for the creation of a Ku Klux Klan student chapter and permitted blackface social gatherings.

Students of color have since pushed back against inequity that’s embedded within Rice’s past and have advocated for the statue’s removal.

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