Univ. of Virginia portraits of Law School deans focus attention on need for diversity

Jet, March 3, 1997

Portraits of former deans of the University of Virginia Law School have come under fire by some students who are concerned about lack of representation by minorities and women.

The oil portraits, all featuring White men draped in Black robes, were recently moved from the law library into a corridor that joins the law school and the old graduate business school.

"When I first did see them it was a shock," Melissa Hart, a 23-year-old Black law student from Randallstown, MD, told the Associated Press. "I respect their decision to put up the portraits, but where are the representations of minorities and women? In light of that absence, it's offensive to me." Although some of the men whose portraits are displayed in the corridor are still living, some students have sarcastically dubbed the hallway "Dead White Male Hall."

Dean Robert Scott, apparently perplexed by the controversy which has been brewing since the portraits were hung last month, said the paintings were approved by a committee of faculty and students several years ago.

"I think it is stereotyping to suggest that these people, just because they are White and male, just like all the presidents of the United States have been, just like all the presidents of the university have been, are not people of whom we should be proud," said Scott.

School officials plan to incorporate the school's diversity into its new setting, Scott said, pointing out that portraits of John Merchant, the first Black to earn a law degree at Virginia, and Elizabeth Tompkins, who became the school's first female enrollee in 1925, have already been commissioned.