News Flash!! Catholic Law Students Take Over Harvard Law School's Langdell Library, Demanding an Endowed Chair in Thomistic Studies and Renaming of Library after Catholic Woman Hanged by Puritans

African American students at Harvard Law School have taken over the student lounge, renaming it Belinda Hall in honor of a slave owned by one of Harvard's early donors.  The group issued this statement of grievances:

Since the law school refuses to provide adequate institutional support for an office of diversity and inclusion, hire critical race theorists, promote staff of color in the workplace to management positions in their due course, provide adequate contextualization in curricula, educate its professors, its staff and its students around cultural competency, take the steps that are necessary to accord adequate and equal dignity to marginalized students and staff, Reclaim Harvard Law aims to provide that space at the law school. Reclaim assumes the burden of educating ourselves and others in spite of this institution and not because of it.

Christopher Columbus Langdell:
Anti-Catholic Bigot &
Harvard Law School Dean

Heartened and emboldened by these events, Catholic law students at HLS took over Langdell Hall, the world's largest law-school library. Catholic students charge that  the library's name honors Christopher Columbus Langdell, an anti-Catholic bigot.  Langdell  was Harvard Law School Dean during the late 19th century and enforced a policy of refusing to admit any student to the law school who had graduated from a Catholic college. Langdell''s policy was upheld by Harvard President Charles Eliot, who once wrote that he hated Catholicism "as I do poison." The Catholic protesters renamed the library Glover Hall, in honor of Ann Glover, a Catholic woman hanged by the Puritans on the Boston Commons in 1688.

The Catholic students issues a list of demands, including the establishment of an endowed chair in Thomistic Studies, a 'Catholic-friendly" menu at all Harvard dining facilities during Lent, and an official apology from Harvard President  Drew Gilpin Faust for the prejudicial treatment of Catholics during the Langdell-Eliot years. They also want Eliot House, which was named after President Eliot, to be renamed Feeney Hall, in memory Father Leonard Feeney, a 20th century Catholic priest who was parish priest in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a time and who preached that all non-Catholic Harvard professors were going to hell.

Father Leonard Feeney:
No salvation outside the Church

President Faust issued a statement promising to burn all Catholic law students at the stake in Harvard Yard if they do not decamp from the law library with 24 hours.  Faust stressed that no student would be burned until after receiving a full due process hearing.

References

Minority Students Take Over Lounge at Harvard Law. Inside Higher Education, February 22, 2016. https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/22/minority-students-occupy-lounge-harvard-law?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=194526da11-DNU20160222&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-194526da11-198564813

"I hate Catholicism as I do poison": Harvard University President Charles William Eliot (1869-1909) and anti-Catholicbigotry in the 19th century

Years ago, on a TV comedy talk show called Fernwood Tonight, comedian Fred Willard made this observation to talk-show host Martin Mull: "Isn't it funny how times have changed?" Willard remarked. "During World War II, people were encouraged to shoot Germans. You might even get a medal for shooting one. But, boy, if you shoot a German today, you're in big trouble!"

I thought about Willard's remark as I considered recent efforts to condemn important historical figures--Americans who were once greatly honored. Take President Woodrow Wilson, for example. The New York Times recently editorialized in favor of striking Wilson's name from Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs based on his record of racism.  Wilson might have thought his legacy would be secure after he died; after all, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize! But the revisionists finally rooted out the racist rascal--exposed like a retired Nazi living in Argentina.

In New Orleans, a groundswell of local opinion will probably force Robert E. Lee's statue off its pedestal at Lee Circle, where it has stood for 100 years. I'm a little more ambivalent about outing Robert E. Lee. I read Douglas Southall Freeman's multi-volume biography of Lee  several years ago, and I became convinced that Lee had many noble qualities.

Nevertheless, I sympathize with the people who want to knock Lee of his perch. As a Catholic, I am offended by the many historical figures who continue to be honored in spite of their clear records of anti-Catholic bigotry.

For example, Christopher Columbus Langdell, Dean of Harvard Law School and father of the case method of teaching, barred graduates from Catholic colleges from being admitted to Harvard Law School. Yes, and in spite of this well-known fact, Harvard's law library is still named Langdell Hall.

Harvard's president, Charles William Eliot, supported Langdell's bigoted policy, claiming it was based on the inferior quality of Catholic colleges and not prejudice. Was President Eliot himself an anti-Catholic bigot? This is what Eliot wrote about Catholicism when he was a young man visiting Europe in the mid-1860s: "I hate Catholicism as I do poison, and all the pomp and power of the Church is depressing and mortifying me."

Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard  1869-1909
"I hate Catholicism as I do poison . . ."

So, let the revisionist historians have a ball. Down with all the statues of Confederate generals! Agitate for the revocation of President Wilson's Nobel Peace Prize!  Remove Andrew Jackson's picture from the twenty-dollar bill!

But let's not let the anti-Catholic bigots lie undisturbed. Harvard's Langdell Hall must be renamed! Surely some Catholic Harvard law students are willing to take over the dean's office to make that happen. And Harvard should take down all the portraits of President Eliot and place them in a broom closet--and I mean now!

Indeed, there are scores of anti-Catholic bigots who should be posthumously humiliated: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Lyman Beecher, and President John Adams; and that's just for openers.

As for you, Ulysses S. Grant, don't get too comfortable in that tomb of yours. If the revisionists examine your views on Catholicism closely, you might be evicted from your final resting place and replaced by someone whose life contained no whiff of bigotry. In fact, we 're measuring Harriet Tubman  for your spot right now! Tubman's Tomb--it has a ring to it, don't you think?

Grant's Tomb:
Hey, Ulysses, don't get too comfortable in your tomb. You might get evicted!

References

Daniel R. Coquilette & Bruce A. Kimball. On the Battlefield of Merit: Harvard Law School, The First Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.