To:
University of Illinois Chicago John Marshall School of Law (ATTN: Darby Dickerson)

We hereby call on the University of Illinois Chicago John Marshall School of Law to remove “John Marshall” from its name.

WHEREBY, John Marshall has a history of upholding racism, slave trade, and the notion that Native Americans have no right to their land.

WHEREBY, John Marshall upheld slavery and the slave trade, by often using legal technicalities and trickery to reverse lower court decisions that ruled in favor of freedom (see: Mason v. Matilda, Wood v. Davis, Mima Queen v. Hepburn, and Scott v. Negro London)

WHEREBY, John Marshall, through Supreme Court Decisions, upheld the the notion that slaves are chattel property of slave owners (see: Hamilton v. Russel)

WHEREBY, John Marshall often upheld the notion that Native Americans have no claim to their land, by using legal trickery to reverse lower court decisions or simply refusing to hear the case (see: Fletcher v. Peck, Johnson v. M’Intosh, Worcester v. Virginia, and Cherokee Nation v. Georgia).

THEREFORE, we call on The University of Illinois Chicago John Marshall School of Law to remove “John Marshall” from its name, and proceed as a legal institution with a clean conscience in support of justice and equality.

THEREFORE, we call on Cleveland-Marshall School of Law to remove “Marshall” from its name, and proceed as a legal institution with a clean conscience in support of justice and equality.

THEREFORE, we call on the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to remove “John Marshall” from John Marshall School of Civic and Business Leadership, John Marshall School of Engineering, and John Marshall School of Information Technology.

Sincerely,
Hanna Kassis, Sunga Mkwezalamba, John Chambers, Clinton Davis