At the Intersection of Race and Business | Can Actions Speak Louder than Names? | Mintz

What’s in a name? I grew up in the Bay Area. I was raised by parents who were open-minded, entrepreneurial and colorful raconteurs. At seventeen, apparently needing a culture shock, I went to college in rural southwestern Virginia – at Washington and Lee University. The school is named after George Washington, an early benefactor, and Robert E. Lee, who was President of the University after the Civil War.

I did not think much about the name “Washington and Lee” at the time. I would get a kick out of my mom butchering the name when I came home for the holidays: “How is that ‘Washington and Jefferson’ or ‘Jackson and Lee’”? I would wonder what combination of somewhat familiar names she would come up with next. . . . “Reagan and Coolidge”, or “Hoover and Carter”?

This month, the University decided to keep the name “Washington and Lee” despite great outside pressure to change the name. This was announced in a letter from…

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