Naming a President and a Building—Painter Hall (2021)

About

This short documentary provides a historical account of the events and players behind the naming of Painter Hall. It includes a narrative of Theophilus Shickel Painter’s rise to the presidency of UT Austin as well as the efforts led by Heman Sweatt and the NAACP to integrate graduate education at UT during Painter’s presidency. This film creates a historical context for the question, often posed by students, about the controversies surrounding the names of buildings including Painter Hall and Robert Lee Moore Hall.

Academic Production Team

Narrator: Dr. Edmund T. Gordon
Script Research and Writing: Drs. Edmund T. Gordon and Celeste Henery

Film Production Team

Producer: Kayla Abuda Galang, Celeste Henery
Editor: Kayla Abuda Galang
Assistant Editor: Bethany Stork
Location Filming: Bethany Stork
Sound Recordists: Will Kurzner, Jared Marxuach
Post-Production Sound Mixers: Karoline Pfeil, Alejandra Arrazola, Solomon King-Purdy, Will Kurzner, Ean Herrera, Morgan Honaker
Additional Support: Bug Davidson, Jacob Weiss, Bryce Seifert

Bibliography

Anon. n.d. “Painter, Theophilus Shickel.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed October 27, 2020. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/painter-theophilus-shickel

“Battle-for-the-Texas-Mind.Pdf.” n.d. Accessed October 27, 2020. https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/battle-for-the-texas-mind.pdf.

Goldstone, Dwonna Naomi. 2006. Integrating the 40 Acres: The Fifty-Year Struggle for Racial Equality at the University of Texas. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 

Green, George. n.d. “Rainey, Homer Price.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed October 27, 2020. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/rainey-homer-price

Jones, Joseph. 1982. Life on Waller Creek: A Palaver about History as Pure and Applied Education. Austin: AAR/Tantalus. 

Lavergne, Gary M. 2012. Before Brown: Herman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice. Austin: University of Texas Press. 

Lombardo, Paul A., Tracking Chromosomes, Castrating Dwarves: Uninformed Consent and Eugenic Research (2009). Ethics & Med., Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 149-164, Fall 2009, Georgia State University College of Law, Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2009-21, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1495134

Moretta, John. 2005. “The Battle for the Texas Mind: The Firing of Homer Rainey Price and The Fight for the Survival of Academic Freedom and New Deal Liberalism at the University of Texas, 1939 – 1945.” Houston History 2 (2): 40–65. 0s.pdf. 

Nash, Margaret A., and Jennifer A. R. Silverman. 2015. “‘An Indelible Mark’: Gay Purges in Higher Education in the 1940s.” History of Education Quarterly 55 (4): 441–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/hoeq.12135. 

Rainey, Homer P. 1971. The Tower and the Dome; a Free University versus Political Control,. Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Pub. Co. 

Stringer, Tommy W. n.d. “Jester, Beauford Halbert.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed October 27, 2020. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/jester-beauford-halbert

“Texas Governors – The Politics of Personality – Page 3 | TSLAC.” n.d. Accessed October 27, 2020. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/governors/personality/page3.html

Photo and Video Credits

Anti-Communist Literature 1950s. In Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, p. 168, Anticommunist_Literature_1950s.png 

Austin, State Capitol. Photograph. Wikipedia, https://pxhere.com/en/photo/498937

Beauford Jester. Photograph. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1949.

Bettmann. Mail Carrier and Civil Rights Activists Herman Sweatt. January 1, 1946. Photograph. Getty Images.

The Board of Regents. Photograph. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1944.

The Board of Regents. Photograph. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1947.

Board of Regents. “Material Supporting the Agenda Volume XXIb.” Regents’ Meetings. The University of Texas System. https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/default/files/offices/board-of-regents/board-meetings/agenda-book-full/msa2-1-1974.pdf. January – August 1974.

“Campus Views Shift on Negro Entrance.” The Daily Texan, January 10, 1950.

Capt. T.S. Painter. Photograph. The History of the University of Texas at Austin Department of Physics, https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/utphysicshistory/Images/Painter_Bldg_Period_1934-72_files/Theophilus%20S%20Painter.jpg

“Charges Texas Prexy Hid ‘Nest’ of Perversion.” Chicago Tribune, November 18, 1944.

Christle Nwora speaks to members of the media outside the U.S. Supreme Court building. Photograph. December 9, 2015. The University of Texas at Austin Facebook, https://es-la.facebook.com/UTAustinTX/photos/christle-nwora-a-senior-at-ut-austin-speaks-to-members-of-the-media-outside-the-/10153127122681930

“Confederate Flags Selling; Kirk to Talk.” The Daily Texan, March 10, 1950.

Depwe, Stanley Depwe. Prints and Photographs Collection, di_07973, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Douglass, Neal. Prints and Photographs Collection, di_04256, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Douglass, Neal. Prints and Photographs Collection, di_07975, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Douglass, Neal. Prints and Photographs Collection, di_07976, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Douglass, Neal. [Heman] Sweatt in UT Registration, Photograph, September 19, 1950; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth33843/: accessed September 30, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Douglass, Neal. [Heman] Sweatt in UT Registration, Photograph, September 19, 1950; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth33840/: accessed September 30, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Douglass, Neal. [Heman] Sweatt in UT Registration, Photograph, September 19, 1950; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth33842/: accessed September 20, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Douglass, Neal. Young African American Talking to Reporter, Photograph, January 1, 1950; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth33885/: accessed September 30, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Ellison Photo Co. [Gearing Hall, Painter Hall and Lily Pond], Photograph, September 1936; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth125331/: accessed September 30, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

An End and a Beginning Photograph Collection, di_09093, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

“55.92 Percent for Unsegregated Admission.” The Daily Texan, April 18, 1950.

Ford, Julie. “Physics Building Revived, Renamed.” The Daily Texan, August 8, 1974.

Frank, Abe. 1908-1953, Austin, Law Building, U.T., Box: 3, Item: 26. George Fuermann “Texas and Houston” Collection, 1970-001. University of Houston Libraries Special Collections.

Grasso, Samantha. Look up: Why a billboard about a police killing stopped me short. September 8, 2020. Photograph. Discourse Blog, https://discourseblog.substack.com/p/look-up

Gutierrez Jr., Miguel. Protesters marched south on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin on Sunday. June 1, 2020. Photograph. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/01/george-floyd-protesters-texas/

“Homer P. Rainey.” Bowie News (Bowie, TX), July 19, 1945.

“Homer P. Rainey for Governor.” The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, TX), August 21, 1946.

“Homer P. Rainey Governor.” Houston Cougar, July 19, 1946.

Huang, Pu Ying. Protesters gather at a rally for George Floyd in Houston. Floyd, a former Houston resident, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis during an attempted arrest. Photograph. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/10/george-floyd-protests-find-texas-organizers-new-allies-police-reforms/

Is This Tomorrow: America Under Communism. 1947. Photograph of Cover Page of a Book. Wikipedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Is_this_tomorrow.jpg

J. Fagg Foster. Photograph. The Economics of J. Fagg Foster. http://jfaggfoster.org/FosterBio.html

“J. Frank Dobie Dismissed From Faculty.” The Daily Texan, September 24, 1947.

“Jester Elected Governor 2 to 1.” The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, TX), August 25, 1946.

John Dos Passos’s U.S.A. Photograph. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.A._
(trilogy)#/media/File:Dos_Passos_USA.jpg

Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft Collection, CN02732, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft Collection, di_02534, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft Collection, di_05059, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Justin, Raga. “UT-Austin football players demand school rename buildings named after racist figures, donate to Black Lives Matter.” The Texas Tribune, June 12, 2020. https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/12/ut-austin-football-players-buildings-racism/

Kubina, Jeff. United States Supreme Court Building. November 10, 2006. Photograph. Wikipedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_states_supreme_court_
building.png

“Letter to Painter,” The Daily Texan, May 26, 1946.

Lulu B. White. Humanities Texas, https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/craft-civil-rights

“March to Home Chanting ‘We Want Rainey.’” The Daily Texan, Oct. 13, 1944.

Messamore, Andrew. “Fischer case goes back to lower court for review.” The Daily Texan, July 1, 2013.

Moore, Larry D. Austin State Hospital. 2006. Photograph. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_State_Hospital#/media/File:Austin_state_hospital.jpg

—. Painter Hall. January 17, 2014. Photograph, Wikipedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Painter_hall_ut.jpg

Muller, H. J., and T. S. Painter. “The Cytological Expression of Changes in Gene Alignment Produced by X-Rays in Drosophila.” The American Naturalist 63, no. 686 (1929): 193–200.

“Negro Grad School Has No Applicants.” The Daily Texan, February 13, 1948.

O’Halloran, Thomas J. Thurgood Marshall, attorney for the NAACP / TOH. 1957. Photograph. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2003688132/.

1940 Census Tract map. Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Texas Maps, https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/texas/1940_ed_maps/austin-texas-census-enumeration_districts-1940-4.jpg

Painter, Theophilus Shickel. “Studies in Mammalian Spermatogenesis.” Journal of Experimental Zoology 37 (1923): 291–336.

“Painter Resigns Post; To Resume Research.” The Daily Texan, March 30, 1952.

“Painter Voted Acting President.” The Daily Texan, October 13, 1944.

Painter with Microscope. Photograph. The Daily Texan, September 23, 1954.

Payne, Elwood M., Paralta Studios, J. R. Parten Papers, di_06878, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Physics-Math-Astronomy Building before it was renamed after UT math professor Robert Lee Moore in 1973. Natural Sciences @UT, https://twitter.com/TexasScience/status
/1283765731755261954/photo/1

Portrait of Peach at Approximately 24 years old. Photograph. Johns Hopkins University Graphic and Pictorial Collection, http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/57254

President Homer Rainey. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1941.

Prints and Photographs Collection, e_rap_0047, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Prints and Photographs Collection, di_05061, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Prints and Photographs Collection, di_02100, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Prints and Photographs Collection, di_02174, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Prints and Photographs Collection, di_02176, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Prints and Photographs Collection, di_08201, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

PVAM University campus in the early 1900s. Photograph. Prairie View A&M University, https://www.pvamu.edu/blog/prairie-view-am-university-144-years-of-shaping-successful-futures-within-veil-of-oppression/

“Rainey Asks Regents to Guarantee Freedom.” The Daily Texan, October 13, 1944.

“Rainey Fired,” The Daily Texan, November 2, 1944.

“Rainey Lists 16 Charges on Regents.” The Daily Texan, October. 13, 1944.

“Regents Offer Dr. Painter Presidency,” The Daily Texan, May 24, 1946.

Rich, Erika. “Simkins Hall name placard.” Photograph. In The Daily Texan, July 16, 2010.

Robert Lee Moore Hall is now (PMA) Physics, Math & Astronomy building. Photograph. College of Natural Sciences, https://twitter.com/TexasScience/status/1296551068688670723

Sellers, Grover, “Letter to Honorable T.S. Painter.” Opinion Files of Grover Sellers. Attorney General of Texas. Opinion No. 0-7126, https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites
/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1946/gs7126.pdf
. March 16, 1946.

Shaholli, Ardian, “Rename T.S. Painter Hall N.D. Tyson Hall.” Change.org. https://www.change.org/p/president-rename-t-s-painter-hall-n-d-tyson-hall

Schneider, Chad. “UT South Mall Statue Removal, Aug. 20 2017.” UT DDCE, 00:30. August, 20, 2017. https://diversity.utexas.edu/2017/08/21/remaining-confederate-statues-moved-from-south-mall-of-campus/

“‘Statement of Facts’ Heman Marion Sweatt, Relator Vs. Theophilius Shickel Painter, Et. Al. Respondants.” August 4, 1947. Travis County Archives, https://tcarchivesarchives.
files.wordpress.com/2010/02/sweatt-painter-statement-of-facts-cover2.jpg

“Sweatt Insists He Will Enter Without Malice,” The Austin American, June 6, 1950.

“Sweatt Rejects 13th Street Law As He Seeks Unsegregated Training,” The Daily Texan, March 28, 1947.

“Sweatt UT Plea Upheld; States Lose on Tidelands.” The Austin American, June 6, 1950.

Taylor, Maurice. Breonna Taylor Mural Project. July 4-5, 2020. Photograph. Future History Now. https://www.futurehistorynow.org/projects/breonna-taylor-mural

Texas Historical Commission. [Texas Southern University], Photograph, Date Unknown; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth940548/: accessed September 30, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; courtesy Texas Historical Commission (thc.texas.gov).

Texas Historical Commission. [Texas Southern University], Photograph, Date Unknown; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth941791/: accessed September 30, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; courtesy Texas Historical Commission (thc.texas.gov).

“Texas U. Prexy Fired for Failure to Oust Homosexuals, Is Charge.” Daily News, November 18, 1944.

“13,000 Sing to Dr. Rainey.” The Daily Texan, November 5, 1944.

Thornton, William, M. “Grover Sellers Announces Candidacy for Governor.” Dallas Morning News, April 7, 1946.  

United Press Photo. “Three of the Attorneys for Sweatt V. Painter.” The Crisis, June-July, 1954.

United States Army Air Forces. [The University of Texas, Austin], Photograph, Date Unknown; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124491/: accessed September 13, 2021), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Theophilus Painter. Photograph. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1947.

Theophilus Painter. Photograph. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1950.

Theophilus Painter. Photograph. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1951.

The University of Texas. The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1941. Texas ScholarWorks. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21546. Accessed on September 21, 2021.

The University of Texas. The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1944. Texas ScholarWorks. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21546. Accessed on September 21, 2021.

The University of Texas. The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1947. Texas ScholarWorks. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21546. Accessed on September 21, 2021.

The University of Texas. The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1949. Texas ScholarWorks. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21546. Accessed on September 21, 2021.

The University of Texas. The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1950. Texas ScholarWorks. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21546. Accessed on September 21, 2021.

The University of Texas. The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1951. Texas ScholarWorks. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21546. Accessed on September 21, 2021.

The University of Texas. The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1956. Texas ScholarWorks. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21546. Accessed on September 21, 2021.

“UT Tower.” The Daily Texan, October, 13, 1944.

“UT Will Admit Him if Daniel Okehs it, Says Dr. Painter.” The Austin American, June 6, 1950.

Welch-McCarthy Hearings. June 9, 1954. Photograph. Wikipedia, United States Senate. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/graphic/xlarge/Welch_McCarthy.jpg

Weldon Rogers Photograph Collection, [identifier number: camh-dob-004413, camh-dob-004414, camh-dob-004415], The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Wendell Gordon. Photograph. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1944.

Wendell Gordon. Photograph. In The Cactus Yearbook. Austin, Texas: 1956.

“Ye Shall Know the Truth,” The Daily Texan, October 13, 1944.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to: Madeline Moya (Austin History Center); Austin History Center, Austin Public Libraries; Humanities Texas; The Daily Texan; Marsha Miller (Communications Department, UT); Communications Department, the University of Texas at Austin; Colleen Lyons (UT Libraries); Aryn Glazier (Briscoe Center); The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History; Dr. Carma Gorman and Dr. Olivia Mena (UT Austin).