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Posted on 11/12/2002 6:08:11 AM PST by stainlessbanner
Racist rhetoric continues on A&M campus
Richard Coke was a thug. Yes, he happened to be the governor of Texas from 1874 to 1876, but the best way to describe him is as a bully with no moral compass. In response to the vile lynching of two blacks who had been charged with stealing cattle, Coke said it was "high time for an enraged people to take the law into their own hands," according to Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction by James M. Smallwood. In addition to openly advocating the lynching of blacks, Smallwood says that Coke, an ex-Confederate still bitter about how the Civil War ended, refused to intervene when mobs attacked both black and white Unionists. Coke also served on an 1859 commission that tried to forceably remove Comanche Indians from the Brazos Indian Reservation, according to his biography on the Handbook of Texas Online.
With such a horrific history behind him, it is surprising that this man has a building named after him on the Texas A&M campus. The Richard Coke building was erected in 1951. While Coke's awful legacy from Texas history cannot be erased, there is no need for Aggies to pay tribute to it. Therefore, the Coke building should be renamed.
Specifically, it should be renamed after a black whose sacrifices and hard work made A&M a better place. Candidates can be chosen from the exquisite online exhibit by the Cushing Library titled "In Fulfillment of a Dream: African-Americans at Texas A&M University."
The wall engraving inside the Coke building erroneously refers to Coke as the "Father of the A&M College of Texas." This is a lie. Coke was many things, but he certainly cannot be considered a patriarch of this fine University. That title deserves to be bestowed on someone like Matthew Gaines, an ex-slave who pushed for the legislation that made A&M's existence a reality.
The same engraving lists his supposed worthwhile features, calling him "A man of spotless integrity, great strength, strong common sense and wide learning." This statement is nonsense. Coke's life is composed of disgusting personal lifestyle decisions and a dubious political career.
For example, Coke was elected associated justice of the Texas Supreme Court in 1866 but was removed only a year later by Philip Henry Sheridan, according to the Handbook of Texas Online. The same article mentions that the Texas Supreme Court tried to nullify his election to the Texas governorship in 1874.
Coke would be deserving of a tribute on the A&M campus if he had contributed to our University in a meaningful way. But Coke did nothing significant for A&M. Therefore, he does not deserve to have a building named in his honor.
It is this line of reasoning that justifies memorializing Sul Ross, another ex-Confederate who served as Texas governor. The difference between Ross and Coke is that Ross actually did many significant things for the University. Ross changed A&M's reputation from a "reform school" to a respectable academic institution, according to The Eagle. In addition, the creation of the Aggie Band, the Aggie Ring and the first Aggie football game all happened under Ross's tenure. Thus, when comparing Coke and Ross, it is necessary to apply a double standard. No matter how one feels about Ross's pre-A&M exploits, all Aggies are indebted to him in some manner.
The only significant thing Coke did related to A&M was give the speech at the school's opening Oct. 4, 1876. The Handbook of Texas Online foolishly calls the speech "eloquent," but in reality it was full of hypocritical statements. For example, Coke told A&M's first group of cadets to "Let honor be your guiding star in your dealings with your superiors, your fellows, with all."
These words ring hollow from a man who apparently wanted to see all blacks exterminated. Honor certainly wasn't Coke's "guiding star" when dealing with this group. It's a shame that the historic opening of this grand University was marred by the presence of a brutal bully whose victims included Texans of all colors.
There has been much recent debate as to the lack of ethnic diversity at A&M. So much that in an effort to make the campus more diverse, University President Dr. Robert M. Gates is putting his own funds toward a scholarship aimed at minorities. This is an excellent idea and it's heartening to see that A&M's president is committed to constructing a more diverse student body. But when a knowledgeable minority recruit who knows the truth about Coke visits this campus and sees the tribute to him, he probably thinks that A&M's commitment to diversity is a sham.
Naming a building for a racist who contributed nothing to A&M was a severe mistake that must be corrected as soon as possible.
Who's next? PSU?
The Butt citing The Beagle. The blind leading the blind.
General Sheridan would have removed Coke in 1867 pursuant to the Radical Republican program of removing the elected governments of the ten ex-Confederate states which had refused to ratify the 14th amendment and creating new governments under the guidance of the occupying forces...Coke's removal says nothing about his personal merits or failings other than to show that he must have been popular among white Texans in 1866.
Coke was on a commission which recommended relocating Comanches? Again, I don't know anything further about Coke's role, but let's get our priorities straight: first we need to remove Andrew Jackson's name from cities, counties, and streets everywhere in the U.S. because of his responsibility for the Trail of Tears.
For the record, I ALWAYS have a picture of a white slave-owner in my wallet.
The leftist penchant for expunging heroes of the American past has clear parallels in Bolshevik Russia, where all names that suggested the Orthodox and Tsarist past were systematically expunged to glorify the new pantheon of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin.
That the name of the Texas governor who freed his state from the yoke of the Yankee carpetbaggers and their Southern scalawag allies would be suggested at Texas A&M, historically a conservative school, is a sad sign of the decline of this nation.
I take it that there will never be a "William Jefferson Clinton" building on campus, then....
Bahhhhh beat me to it. Revisionism, the New History, being taught at the Lefty Campus near you!
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