{"id":4,"ordinal":0,"modified":"2026-09-18 18:24:23","content_modified":"2026-09-18 18:24:23","featured":1,"title":"The Ballad of Kurth and Clark","creator":null,"description":"<p>In 2020, Ernest Kurth Residence Hall was renamed Ernest Clark Residence Hall. Ernest Kurth was a longtime member of the Southwestern Board of Trustees and someone who actively impeded the racial desegregation of Southwestern in the 1950s and early 1960s, just before this building was first named for him. Ernest Clark was the first Black student enrolled by and graduated from Southwestern. This official act of de-commemoration and re-commemoration opens into many smaller stories about the contemporary cultural politics of place-naming at Southwestern.</p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/7d2257bc838beaa6c548e91c8a79309b.jpg","items":[{"id":77,"title":"Clark Residence Hall: Legacy, Renaming, and Reflections on Southwestern's Past","latitude":30.6344584369494583597770542837679386138916015625,"longitude":-97.66231458651026287043350748717784881591796875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/7d2257bc838beaa6c548e91c8a79309b.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/7d2257bc838beaa6c548e91c8a79309b.jpg","subtitle":"A story that symbolizes the role of renaming in reckoning with Southwestern’s past.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":76,"title":"Who was Ernest L. Clark?","latitude":30.634476899895421553310370654799044132232666015625,"longitude":-97.66248622699419001946807838976383209228515625,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/d48c794ccd97abbff9c4b280f9e76f11.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/d48c794ccd97abbff9c4b280f9e76f11.jpg","subtitle":"Harmony in adversity: Remembering Clark's enduring impact on Southwestern.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":24,"title":"Who was Ernest L. Kurth?","latitude":30.6343938166108955556410364806652069091796875,"longitude":-97.6621482889657954729045741260051727294921875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/f747b7261ff7f6020663321c1648f80c.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/f747b7261ff7f6020663321c1648f80c.jpg","subtitle":"A Complex Legacy of Philanthropy and Segregation","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":25,"title":"Kurth Residence Hall","latitude":30.634454362119132753150552161969244480133056640625,"longitude":-97.66268485298365931157604791224002838134765625,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/e19e280fb54189cc77b7698d12ea17ec.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/e19e280fb54189cc77b7698d12ea17ec.jpg","subtitle":"A building with a tangled history.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":71,"title":"How Ernest Kurth still haunts Ernest Clark Hall","latitude":30.6344676684228858221104019321501255035400390625,"longitude":-97.6625024297362642755615524947643280029296875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/4490de2122565fc0ef7213202f6f753b.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/4490de2122565fc0ef7213202f6f753b.jpg","subtitle":"Three years after Kurth Hall was renamed Clark Hall, references to the original name persist.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":27,"title":"Kurth Tennis Courts","latitude":30.63739915758505816256729303859174251556396484375,"longitude":-97.66370942582676661913865245878696441650390625,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/fb2ba51360ba42c3d9bf872da2f41664.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/fb2ba51360ba42c3d9bf872da2f41664.jpg","subtitle":"A replaced place tangled up with the complicated history of Ernest Kurth .","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":26,"title":"Kurth-Landrum Golf Course","latitude":30.6362862515066609603309188969433307647705078125,"longitude":-97.6598362144717384580872021615505218505859375,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/4d64f15b195657a7a3b71d74edc5b247.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/4d64f15b195657a7a3b71d74edc5b247.jpg","subtitle":"A replaced place tangled up with the complicated history of Ernest Kurth .","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}}]}