Harvard Business School renaming campus building for this Fort Worth and TCU legend
A campus building at Harvard University is being renamed in honor of a Fort Worth legend.
The Harvard Business School is renaming a building after James Cash, the school’s first Black tenured professor, who was born in Fort Worth and graduated from I.M. Terrell High School. He became the first Black basketball scholarship player in the Southwest Conference after he signed with TCU in 1965.
Cash was an Academic All-American in his last two years with the Horned Frogs. He was inducted into the SWC Hall of Fame in 2014.
The building was formerly called “Glass House,” which honored former U.S. Treasury Secretary Carter Glass, who promoted racist voting policies, according to Harvard Business School. It will now be known as “Cash House.”
While at Harvard, Cash was a pioneer in information technology. He later taught in the MBA program and executive education. He was a member of the Harvard Business School faculty from 1976 to 2003.
Cash later served on the corporate boards of Walmart, General Electric and Microsoft.
Business School Dean Nitin Nohria announced the change last week to faculty, staff and students.
“Not only has he transcended many racial barriers in his own life, he also has propelled generations of Black students, faculty, and staff, as well as scores of business leaders, to successful and meaningful lives and careers,” Nohria said in a statement.
Nohria also announced an “action plan for racial equity at the school, including an initiative to recruit more Black professors and faculty.”
Nohria said the renaming “rectifies a wrong.”
“We therefore cannot allow the Glass name to remain at the School, even while we recognize and cannot forget that it has been a fact of our history for 75 years,” Nohria wrote. “It is important that members of our community see themselves in our spaces and take pride in those whose names define our physical landscape. Cash House will reflect our deepest belief that leaders are individuals of not just great competence, but also outstanding and impeccable character.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 2:38 PM.
