A Bay Area law school that counts Vice President Kamala Harris among its distinguished alumni has voted to support a rebrand over its namesake's support of "horrific acts" against Native Americans in the 1850s.
The University of California, Hastings College of Law's Board of Directors voted unanimously in favor of a change on Tuesday, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. Its founder, Serranus Clinton Hastings, funded and masterminded massacres of the Yuki People – or Powe Nom – in Mendocino County's Round Valley beginning in 1859.
The school – located at 200 McAllister St. in San Francisco – first started looking into Hastings' past and a possible name change in 2017.
Claes Lewenhaupt, great-great grandson of Hastings and member of the school's Board of Directors, called his great-great grandfather's name "a stain that associated with the name and the college," the paper said.
"To move forward with (a name change) is the right thing to do," he added.
Even with Tuesday's vote, the name change isn't imminent.
State Sen. Scott Wiener is expected to introduce legislation that would allow the school to move forward in removing the name.
"My commitment is to do what we can to bring restorative justice to the Yuki People (also known as N'om, Powe' N'om, and Wit'uconomom People of Eden Valley and Round Valley) and other Indigenous communities who were affected by Serranus Hastings' horrific acts," Chancellor and Dean David Faigman wrote in an open letter released last week.
He went on to call his support for a name change "evolving" as school officials "build relationships with members of the Yuki People and the Round Valley Indian Tribes."
Faigman's letter came in response to a lengthy piece in The New York Times detailing Hastings' orchestration of a "set of massacres" of Native Americans in California, multiple campaigns the paper reported "killed at least 283 men, women and children." In total, it's thought Hastings' actions later led to the deaths of over 1,000 Native Americans.
Tragically, Hastings' expeditions were only a few examples of what were common occurrences across the state between the 1840s to 1870s in an effort to secure more land for white settlers.
Hastings, a wealthy rancher, was the first chief justice of the California Supreme Court and also served as California attorney general. The campaigns against Native Americans were sometimes reimbursed for ammunition and travel by the State of California and federal government.
Hastings also counts Congresswoman Jackie Speier and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown as graduates.
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