Unnamed Steps?

From the Bruin: A petition to rename Janss Steps received over 2,000 signatures as of July 6. The petition states that UCLA should rename the steps after an alumnus who changed the world for the better, rather than someone who contributed to institutional racism. Many students don’t know that the Janss brothers have a history of racial discrimination, said Michael Penny, an alumnus who started the petition in June...

Janss Investment Company, which the brothers owned at the time, developed Westwood Village and used racial covenants to ban people of color from owning properties or businesses in the area in the 1920s...

Some student signees suggested that Janss Steps should be renamed after Martin Luther King Jr., who gave a speech addressing segregation and racial injustice on the steps in 1965. Other students who supported the petition proposed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former UCLA basketball player and social justice advocate...

Larry Janss, the grandson of Edwin Janss Sr., initially brushed off the idea of renaming Janss Steps when he heard about the petition, but he said he quickly became empathetic to the idea after he read an article describing why monuments honoring racist figures should be renamed. Larry Janss said he acknowledges his ancestors’ racist history. However, he added he wants people to associate the steps with the social justice efforts he and his father, Edwin Janss Jr., funded with the Janss Foundation, rather than Edwin Sr. and Harold Janss’ racism...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2020/07/06/janss-brothers-history-of-discrimination-prompts-call-for-changing-name-of-steps