Historian says we should rename Russell senate office building in honor of Ted Kennedy

by David Bennett and Matt Bennett

David Bennett is a professor emeritus of American history at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Matt Bennett, his son, is co-founder and senior vice president of the Third Way think tank.

Perhaps the most coveted workspace in Washington — that isn’t oval, at least — sits in a beautiful Beaux- Arts building on Constitution Avenue. It’s got a rotunda ringed by Corinthian columns, curved marble staircases and golden eagles. It has been home to some of the most famous hearings in Senate history: the investigations of the Titanic sinking and the Teapot Dome scandal, the Truman Commission and the Army-McCarthy, Teamsters and Watergate hearings.

Yet this extraordinarily important building is named for one whose historical legacy is unworthy of such an honor: the late senator Richard B. Russell (D-Ga.).

It is time to rename this precious building for someone more deserving. We suggest Ted Kennedy.

The nation has arrived at a landmark set of anniversaries for the civil rights era. Fifty years ago, Congress enacted the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. This progress was made possible by the Bloody Sunday march in Selma and countless other acts of courage and selflessness. The world stood witness to a movement that used strict nonviolence and enormous moral force to bring about extraordinary change.

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