Michigan State University on Friday renamed one of its buildings after determining the namesake had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Despite his family’s objections, longtime public servant Stephen S. Nisbet’s name was dropped from the building after MSU officials said they discovered his KKK membership card at a library at Central Michigan University.
Nisbet was an MSU trustee who helped rewrite Michigan’s state constitution in the 1960s.
The building, home to a portion of the College of Social Science and the Human Resources department, was named in his honor in 1974.
“I know this current situation is not easy” for the family, MSU President Samuel Stanley Jr. said.
“But when it’s brought to my attention recently that one of our campus buildings was named for an individual who had a possible connection to the Ku Klux Klan, I knew we needed to take immediate action.”
Nisbet’s grandson, Stephen P. Nisbet, has strongly denied any connection between his grandfather and the KK.K.
He said he never heard his grandfather talk about the white supremacist organization and that he believes the signature on the membership card is not a match.
“I spent much time in my youth and later as an adult with my grandfather and my grandmother, and I have great respect and admiration for both of them,” Nisbet said.
The school’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to refer to the building as 1407 S. Harrison, with the option of renaming it after someone else at a later date.
With Post wires