Frankly, we expected better from institutions of higher learning such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Oshkosh.
Fredric March was born in 1897 in Racine. He grew up in the 1600 block of College Avenue, graduated from Racine High School — there was only one public high school in the city at the time — then attended UW-Madison before going on to an illustrious acting career, winning two Oscars and two Tonys.
He also was a member of a UW-Madison campus organization called “Ku Klux Klan.”
Now if the investigation into March’s life began and ended there, we can see where the UW-Madison Memorial Union might decide that March was no longer worthy of having his name on a theater space in the building; it did just that in 2018. Had the investigation gone no further, we can see where UW-Oshkosh might decide March’s name should no longer be on its theater arts center, an honor given to its “adopted son” in 1971; Oshkosh followed suit and removed March’s name in 2020.
The Wisconsin Union Council — made up mostly of students but also some alumni, faculty and staff — made the decision to remove March’s name and it has no plans to revisit the issue, Union spokesperson Shauna Breneman said.
The problem lies in the shallowness of the examination of March’s life, the seemingly knee-jerk, case-closed reaction to March having been a member of a group with the same name as a notorious group of white supremacists.
March belonged to a UW-Madison student interfraternity society formed in 1919 that bore the “Ku Klux Klan” label, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Aug. 16.
A committee studying the history of the KKK on campus found the group appeared not to have been affiliated with any larger Klan groups nor did it find any evidence that the group engaged in acts of terrorism, violent intimidation or other activities commonly associated with the Klan.
The group also appears to have tried to distance itself from the national Klan, the report found. It changed its name from the KKK to “Tumas” after a second student group — a Klan-controlled housing fraternity, Kappa Beta Lambda, or KBL, for “Klansmen Be Loyal” — surfaced in 1924 and was tied to the national Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
So the group with the name that suggested it was comprised of white supremacists wanted nothing to do with actual white supremacists on campus.
Then there is the matter of the 55 years between March’s 1920 graduation from UW-Madison and his death in 1975.
UW-Madison alumnus George Gonis did the kind of research on March you would expect college students and faculty to undertake before deciding to rescind the honors given to him.
Gonis, who earned degrees in journalism and history, published his research in an online film magazine last fall. The 17,000-word article argues that UW-Madison, UW-Oshkosh, the Union and media ignored March’s well-established legacy as a social justice advocate who worked alongside some of the biggest names in the civil rights movement.
“There appeared to be no sifting and winnowing,” he wrote. “There appeared to be no continual search for truth from those demanding the removal of March’s name.”
Among the findings Gonis cites in his report:
— March was among a handful of celebrities to publicly back Marian Anderson, an opera singer who in 1939 was barred from a performance in Washington, D.C., because she was African American. His name appeared on an event program as a sponsor.
— The NAACP in 1964 asked March to deliver a keynote address on live TV celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. The organization cited the actor as “one of its longtime friends” when making the request.
— March narrated a documentary about blacks serving in the military during World War II. A radio program he narrated also recognized their efforts.
— March forged friendships with a long list of progressive activists, including NAACP executive secretary Roy Wilkins, who lauded the actor’s “past and present support of our efforts.”
— March attended a secret meeting for Martin Luther King Jr. and some of his supporters in the Manhattan apartment of singer Harry Belafonte in 1963, just before King headed to Alabama where he would write his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
— When Birmingham police used fire hoses and German Shepherds to quell peaceful demonstrators in 1963, March signed a telegram scolding President John F. Kennedy for not doing more to protect the protesters.
On balance, Fredric March was a man who spent decades as an ally in the fight for civil rights for African Americans. A man whom the civil rights leaders of his time praised as a longtime friend and supporter. A man worthy of being honored both at his alma mater and at the UW school in the city that had claimed him as its own.
This is something that would have been evident, had the kind of research routinely expected of college students actually taken place before the late actor was stripped of the honors.
Editorial link: https://journaltimes.com/opinion/editorial/journal-times-editorial-uw-schools-dishonor-fredric-march-with-shoddy-research/article_2a844c7c-a565-5189-b69f-540bc29e4d0b.html
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