John Henry Boalt (March 29, 1837 in
Norwalk, Ohio
Norwalk is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Huron County, Ohio, Huron County. The population was 17,012 at the United States Census 2010, 2010 census. The city is the center of the Norwalk, OH μSA, Norwalk Micropolitan Stat ...
– May 9, 1901 in
Cloverdale, California
Cloverdale is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States; it is both the westernmost and the northernmost city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad reached Cloverdale in 1872. The Cloverdale Rancher ...
) was an attorney who resided in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
in the late 19th century. After graduating from
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
in 1857, Boalt attended the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
School of Mining. He left Germany to enlist in the Union Army and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry as a member of the
Signal Corps in the American Civil War
The Signal Corps in the American Civil War comprised two organizations: the U.S. Army Signal Corps, which began with the appointment of Major Albert J. Myer as its first signal officer just before the war and remains an entity to this day, and t ...
.
He served throughout the rest of the War.
After the War, he moved west to Nevada with his wife Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt in 1867
and worked in mining, but soon entered the legal profession.
He became a judge in Nevada in 1870 before moving to Oakland in 1871, where he started the San Francisco law firm of Estee & Boalt where he was a partner until 1884.
In 1889, he became a member of the leading west coast law firm Garber, Boalt & Bishop handling cases involving mining law and operations, including one where he acted for the City of San Francisco,
and was president of the local Bar association, Library Trustee of the city of Oakland, and member of the Bohemian Club.
He retired in 1892.
Boalt has recently become known for his
racist
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
views of
Chinese people
The Chinese people or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation.
Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by speakers of s ...
. He was an influential supporter of the
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...
in 1882. In 1877 he read a paper before the Berkeley Club in which he wrote that Chinese were
unassimilable liars, murderers and misogynists who provoked "unconquerable repulsion."
This writing was later championed by Senator Creed Haymond of Sacramento, who was the chair of the newly convened Senate Special Committee on Chinese Immigration and California Senator Aaron A. Sargent.
Boalt married Elizabeth Josselyn (born Hanover, Massachusetts 30 June 1838)
on 31 July 1866, in Waverly, Massachusetts,
and together they had one child, Alice Boalt Tevis, first wife of Hugh Tevis. She died unexpectedly; her death was "a blow from which Judge Boalt never recovered".
At his death due to heart failure, his only surviving relatives were his wife and granddaughter, Alice, who later died at age 10.
After Boalt's death in 1901, his widow, Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt, created a trust allocating two parcels of land in San Francisco valued at $100,000 to be sold for the benefit of the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
to construct a building to house its
new School of Jurisprudence on the
Berkeley campus
The campus of the University of California, Berkeley and its surrounding community are home to a number of notable buildings by early 20th-century campus architect John Galen Howard, his peer Bernard Maybeck (best known for the San Francisco Pala ...
. Six weeks later, the
1906 earthquake destroyed the properties. The trustees were able to sell only one parcel, for far less than the original value. In recognition of the gift, the new building was named Boalt Memorial Hall of Law. In 1906, she created a further trust, whereby, subject to a life estate and certain powers of revocation, she transferred substantially all of her remaining estate "to establish and endow a professorship in the Department of Jurisprudence in the University of California, to be known as the 'John H. Boalt Professorship of Jurisprudence.'"
She later modified the fund as a permanent endowment "for such chair or chairs as my said trustees or their successors, may designate and determine, or, in lieu of such designation, as the said Board of Regents shall determine."
She was also a secret patron of artists, musicians, and writers.
A pianist in her youth, Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt went on to enroll in Vienna as a pupil of Leschetizky at age 60.
She studied Italian, German, and French and maintained a society of artists, musicians, and literary people.
Because of Boalt's racist legacy, Berkeley law lecturer Charles P. Reichmann proposed in 2018 that the building be renamed.
The school announced its decision to remove his name from the building in January 2020, and was removed from the building on the morning of January 30, 2020.
References
External links
Genealogy Records at Amherst CollegeUC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law renamed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boalt, John Henry
1837 births
1901 deaths
Amherst College alumni
People from Norwalk, Ohio
People of Ohio in the American Civil War
Lawyers from Oakland, California
People from Cloverdale, California
Union Army soldiers
University of California, Berkeley people
Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States
Heidelberg University alumni
American expatriates in Germany