UC Berkeley outlines plans to account for The Bancroft Library’s namesake

In June 2023, UC Berkeley leadership received a proposal to unname the campus’s esteemed Bancroft Library, one of the largest special collections libraries in the United States. Citing the racist and nativist views of the library’s namesake, Hubert Howe Bancroft, the proposal was the latest in a series of building unnaming requests on campus. 

However, given that The Bancroft Library is not the name of a campus building, but rather the name of the library and multiple collections housed within the Doe Annex building, campus leadership determined in early 2024 that the proposal to unname The Bancroft Library required a special committee. Consequently, the Bancroft Library Reckoning Committee (BLRC) was created to consider and acknowledge the history of the library’s namesake.

In spring 2024, the Office of the Chancellor, the UC Berkeley Library and the Division of Equity & Inclusion tasked the BLRC to review the writings of H.H. Bancroft and conduct listening sessions with library and campus constituents. 

As part of its research and review process, the BLRC consulted a variety of primary and secondary sources by and about H.H. Bancroft, as well as the origins of The Bancroft Library. The BLRC also assembled citations for some of those materials into a guide, available on the Library website, and created a webpage to share information about its charge, publicize the listening sessions and seek input into the committee’s deliberations via a public comment form. 

The committee concluded its work earlier this year and submitted a detailed report to campus leaders in June. The report, available on the committee website, describes the group’s process, findings and feedback it received. It also presented several options for what changes might include, as well as their potential implications. 

Today (July 10), Chancellor Rich Lyons, Interim Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion Fabrizio Mejia, and University Librarian Suzanne Wones issued the following letter outlining their decision on the steps the campus and the library would take regarding H.H. Bancroft’s legacy.

July 10, 2025

Decision regarding The Bancroft Library reckoning process

In June 2025, The Bancroft Library Reckoning Committee (BLRC) submitted its final report outlining its engagement with campus and community stakeholders in a reckoning process developed to consider and address the writings and views of Hubert Howe Bancroft, for whom the library is named. The report documents work from December 2023 to June 2025 to fulfill the committee’s stated charge, which included:

• Considering and acknowledging the history of the name of The Bancroft Library through listening sessions and a fact-finding review of key documents. 
• Compiling recommendations regarding possible actions. 
• Considering and weighing the risks and benefits of any proposed recommendations.

The BLRC was established in response to a proposal to unname The Bancroft Library, which documents H.H. Bancroft’s racist and nativist views.

The committee considered a broad set of information, including primary and secondary sources by and about H.H. Bancroft and research on the origins of The Bancroft Library. The committee also engaged in five listening sessions with 86 participants total, two additional meetings with interested community groups, 48 comments received via Google forms, and 14 additional letters and submissions.

“As a public institution of higher education, the committee believes that a reckoning process provides opportunities for greater civic and community engagement and empowerment,” the report states. “Deliberate and mindful reckoning may strike a balance between the calls for historical erasure of the library’s name and those to keep it.”

Upon careful consideration of the committee’s report and accompanying documentation, in fulfillment of the committee’s recommendation to embrace reparative actions, we are immediately announcing these commitments:

1. Community engagement: The Bancroft Library will add an outreach and community engagement librarian to its roster to increase its capacity to engage with public education, outreach, and instruction. This position will enable the library to do substantially more in its mission to connect with students, faculty, and the public. The librarian will increase access to and engagement with the library’s collections, help foster a more accessible and welcoming environment, and coordinate public education around H.H. Bancroft and the history of the library. Time frame: 2026

2. Educational exhibition: The university will support an exhibition at The Bancroft Library and online that includes the origins and collecting history of the library; an exploration of the racist, nativist, and contradictory views and writings of H.H. Bancroft; and an acknowledgement of our responsibility to engage with and learn from the past. This will include the development of a permanent didactic. Time frame: Fall 2027

3. Academic symposium: The Bancroft Library will host an academic conference and ongoing community panels, forums, or symposia regarding the history of its name and including H.H. Bancroft’s legacy and white supremacy in historical perspective. The conversations will include confronting the contradictions of honored political and cultural leaders of the past and how to best grapple with contemporary demands for social justice in light of historical forces in context. Time frame: 2028-2029

In its final report, the BLRC detailed many drawbacks to renaming The Bancroft Library and its collection. Based on these many drawbacks, the operational and fiscal challenges of renaming would prevent the library from serving its full archival role, including challenges for global users seeking “Bancroft Library” items that would no longer exist under that name. In addition, operational and fiscal challenges of an unnaming would prevent the library from taking proactive measures to address the harms created by the original writings of H.H. Bancroft.

After carefully weighing these and other factors, our considered judgment is to not change the name of The Bancroft Library.

Rather, we have committed to the above actions as a starting point in addressing and reckoning with H.H. Bancroft’s bigotry, racism, and nativism, while acknowledging that the name and the legacy may have caused and may continue to cause harm. With this decision, we aim to invest in conversations and learning as an academic institution, helping to prepare our campus and our broader community to critically examine and act upon injustice now and into the future.

We acknowledge and thank the dedicated members of the BLRC for establishing a foundation from which we will continue to pursue restorative justice efforts on our campus.

Sincerely,

Richard K. Lyons, Chancellor

Fabrizio Mejia, Interim Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion 

Suzanne Wones, University Librarian