The name of the last all-male dormitory on the University of Texas campus has become an issue more than half a century after the dorm opened because the building is named after William S. Simkins, a Texas lawyer who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1955, UT opened the Simkins Residence Hall in honor of Simkins, who taught at the UT School of Law from 1899 until his death in 1929, according to an online history of the UT residence halls. “The Handbook of Texas Online” says Simkins, a native of South Carolina, served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and helped start the Ku Klux Klan in Florida following the war. During his tenure on the UT law faculty, Simkins delivered lectures on the Ku Klux Klan to his students.
