SummitPost.org

http://www.dailycal.org/2015/10/19/berk ... ry-school/

This is about the controversy surrounding the name, LeConte Elementary School in Berkeley, and the movement to rename it after someone with a more respectable past. I wonder if this will also affect Mount LeConte, LeConte Falls and the LeConte Divide in the High Sierra. His book, "A Summer of Rambles Through the High Sierras of California" is still one of my favorite reads on the subject.

Joseph LeConte, for whom the elementary school is named, was one of the first UC Berkeley professors. LeConte and his brother John — the first acting UC Berkeley president — were raised in Georgia and owned more than 200 slaves. In addition, the family manufactured munitions for the Confederate States Army.

Oh, well. Nobody's perfect.

Oh brother. The article doesn't say that LeConte and his brothers owned the slaves. I suspect the family they were born into, the same that manufacturer amunitions for the Confederate, owned them. What's next, a movement to rename every place named after Washington and Jefferson since they owned slaves too?

fatdad wrote:Oh brother. The article doesn't say that LeConte and his brothers owned the slaves. I suspect the family they were born into, the same that manufacturer amunitions for the Confederate, owned them. What's next, a movement to rename every place named after Washington and Jefferson since they owned slaves too?

My thoughts as well. His contributions to science and conservation were numerous and significant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_LeConte

The Sierra Club recently decided to turn over management of the LeConte Memorial Lodge in Yosemite Valley back to the Park service after 110 years of operation. I believe this controversy may have had something to do with that decision.

There are more than 10,000 slaves working at UC today; the University would not be able to function without them. They are called graduate students.

Would this be the same LeConte of LeConte peak in the North Cascades/Ptarmigan Traverse?

ExcitableBoy wrote:Would this be the same LeConte of LeConte peak in the North Cascades/Ptarmigan Traverse?

Yes. http://www.summitpost.org/le-conte-mountain/539474

There is another Mount LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee which may have been named after his now infamous older brother, John LeConte- also raised by their slave owner parents. I suppose the name of this mountain is safe given the location.