SBTS trustees keep controversial names

Trustees of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, unanimously voted Oct. 12 not to remove the names of the school’s founders from several campus buildings.

Trustees considered but declined calls to remove the names of founding president James P. Boyce and founding faculty members John Broadus, Basil Manly Jr. and William Williams, all of whom held slaves prior to emancipation. Several campus buildings bear their names.

Trustees instead embraced steps to lament the institution’s historic ties to racists, vacating an endowed chair named after a controversial 19th-century benefactor and providing scholarships for African American students over the next few years.

Read more at tabonline.org/southern-trustees.

Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.