Life of the Mind Talk: Swift 101 Lecture

This talk discusses the unsavory aspects of the legacy of Harold H. Swift which have been officially ignored by the University of Chicago and beyond. I show that he was a key figure responsible for the making of Swift Hall where the Divinity School is housed, and, to a lesser extent, other unique dimensions of the University of Chicago. During his lengthy tenure as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago (1922-1949), he remained a powerful donor who supplied the essential funds responsible for Swift Hall's material construction and exercised rare administrative oversight over the process. Under his consequential chairmanship in the 30s and 40s, the University of Chicago saw its nadir in local race relations. Swift successfully instructed the administration of the University to legally support, fund, and help organize powerful efforts to bar and evict local non-whites, especially African Americans, from living near campus.