Fresno State academic senate quickly moves to support removing racist name from library

The academic senate at Fresno State on Monday quickly introduced, advanced and passed a resolution in support of taking the name of Henry Madden off the university library, following a presentation from a task force charged with reviewing the naming of the building.

The preliminary report from the task force, released last month, included writings and photographs from Madden, and summary findings included that Madden:

• Expressed antisemitic and pro-Nazi sentiments before World War II, some of which included violent statements.
• Continued to express antisemitic statements after the war.
• Made racist remarks about Jews and other individuals while an administrator at Fresno State.
• Started in writing that some of his policies and actions as an administrator were influenced by his racist views.
• Donated his papers to the university after personally curating the contents and with full knowledge that they contained antisemitic and racist statements.

The task force over five months examined more than 100,000 documents in Madden’s papers as well as collections from other universities and outside repositories across the country.

As a man who admired Adolf Hitler, Madden, in his writings, described a “violent and uncontrollable phobia” against Jewish people, and said, “they must go!”

In his 2018 book, “Hitler’s American Friends,” Fresno State professor Bradley Hart first revealed Madden’s racist writings

Madden’s writings have been in a special collection of the library since being donated after his 1982 death. The collection remained sealed until late 2007.

The library was renamed after him in 1981 in honor of a $5.2 million addition to the library.

The California State University Board of Trustees, which approved it being renamed in the 1980s, must approve a decision to rename or contextualize it.

The documents examined included correspondence with colleagues, friends and his mother.

Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval created the task force in November after top university leaders learned of Madden’s antisemitic views and Nazi sympathies.

This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 7:42 AM.