UW-Madison Needs to Restore Fredric March’s Name – The American Spectator

A prophet is without honor in his hometown. A classic case is found in the continued refusal of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to restore the name of Fredric March to a university theatre.

Fredric March was one of the greatest actors of all time. He was born in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1897, served in the United States Army during World War I, and later attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the early 1920s. 

He was the recipient of the Best Actor Academy Award for his 1931 performance in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He received a second Academy Award after portraying a returning veteran in the 1946 classic The Best Years of Our Lives, beating out Jimmy Stewart, who had starred in It’s a Wonderful Life. The only other person who had won two Best Actor Awards before Fredric March was Spencer Tracy. The Best Years of Our Lives is a classic portrayal of the struggles of returning veterans from World War II, and, though not as well known today as It’s a Wonderful Life, it is one of those films that is just as relevant in the 2020s as it was in the 1940s. Navigating the way for later performers such as the late Richard Jordan, March was one of the few who could perform in Broadway and Hollywood with equal acclaim. He received a Tony Award for Broadway and a Golden Globe Award for television.

March’s Civil Rights Activism Failed to Impress UW-Madison

In concurrence with his acting career, Fredric March was active in the American civil rights movement. He was a founder of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and was even investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

March’s career and activism, however, were not enough to stop a modern-day witch hunt from erasing his name from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus theatre that bore his name. In the early 1920s, March was part of an interfraternity campus group then known as the KKK. This KKK had absolutely no relationship with the racist Ku Klux Klan. March’s group immediately changed its name in 1922 when the racist group, nicknamed the KKK, became more popular. Simply put, the campus group wanted nothing to do with a racist organization.  (READ MORE: Oppenheimer: A Reprieve From Woke)

There is no indication that Fredric March ever displayed a hint of racism in his life. He worked for decades with the NAACP and was a supporter of equality as far back as high school. In 1939, March publicly supported Marian Anderson in the well-known dispute with the Daughters of the American Revolution and chided President John F. Kennedy for not doing more to protect civil rights marchers during the Birmingham Protests of 1963.

Despite overwhelming, widely known evidence of March’s love for all races, the administration of the University of Wisconsin-Madison removed his name from the campus theatre in 2018 after caving to student activists who demanded the erasure based on March’s membership in the interfraternity group.

UW-Madison Needs to Restore Its Own Name

Calls for March’s name to be restored through the years have increased with support from actor Louis Gossett Jr. and film historian Leonard Maltin, as well as the Wisconsin and National Chapters of the NAACP. Despite these calls, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has shown no mercy toward the memory of one of its greatest alums.

In a larger sense, Fredric March does not need his name restored. History is clear about who he was and what he stood for. The judgment of those who never knew him matters little. In this case, it is the University of Wisconsin-Madison that needs to redeem its name and restore the smallest semblance of free and open inquiry at the academy. (READ MORE: Barbie, or How to Create Millions of Victims)

The character of Dr. Jekyll dies in March’s first Academy Award–winning performance. In his second Academy Award–winning performance in The Best Years of Our Lives, March’s character returns home to a world he does not recognize but into which he is slowly welcomed back. After being offered redemption, his life is better than ever before. Hopefully, instead of killing off March’s name and attempting to smear his character, art will imitate life, and the name of the great Fredric March will be restored at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Larry Provost, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, has written for Townhall, Newsmax, Fox News, the Baltic Times, and InFocus (the Jewish Policy Center) and has appeared on several major media outlets. Views expressed are his own and not those of any government agency.