The University removed the statue of USC founder Robert Widney on Nov. 28, more than two months ago, for “maintenance and cleaning.” Widney hasn’t been seen since. 

Over the past two months, the University responded to the Daily Trojan’s five requests for a timeline for reinstating the statue and its accompanying plaque, writing repeatedly that “no further information is available.”

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Former USC President Max Nikias immortalized the land developer and judge in 2014 with a bronze statue, sculpted by Christopher Slatoff, at the entrance to Widney Alumni House. In a grand ceremony, Nikias unveiled the 1,000-pound statue to USC Trustees and senior leadership to fanfare from the Trojan Marching Band, recalling in his speech the “spirit and ethos” of the “exceptional” Widney.

Reflecting on the statue’s unceremonious removal, some scholars say the University hasn’t quite reckoned with its past and its founder’s legacy. 

A lawyer by profession, Widney led the Law and Order party, a vigilante justice committee that cooperated with law enforcement and suppressed violations, said UC Merced associate professor of history David Rouff. 

Rouff — who wrote “Before L.A.: Race, Space, and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781-1894” and has researched Widney’s role in the city’s history — said a poorly functioning justice system made the resort to vigilante justice common in Widney’s day. In 1870, the Law and Order party orchestrated the hanging of Frenchman Michael Lachenais, who had committed a public murder that a grand jury refused to investigate.

“It is likely, based on the evidence, that Widney, at least as the head of this Law and Order party … played a part in and supported the vigilante killing of Lachenais,” Rouff said.

In recognition of his leadership of the group, Widney earned a judgeship in late 1871, just before the anti-Chinese massacre in L.A. the same year — during which a mob of about 500 stormed through Chinatown, killing 19 people. Some accounts, including Nikias’ speech at the unveiling, credit Widney for having tried to quell tensions during the riot and protect the lives of Chinese residents. 

For Rouff, resolving Widney’s support for extra-legal hangings with his apparent efforts to save lives during the massacre boils down to the developer’s motivation to nurture L.A.’s growth.

“He had an immaterial stake in fostering a peaceful society that could sell itself to immigrants,” Rouff said.

Widney’s brother, Joseph, was a “much clearer hard case” of bigotry; Joseph authored “Race Life of the Aryan Peoples,” Rouff said. The book lays out his racist beliefs — including that white and Black people “cannot live together as equals.” Joseph went on to serve as USC’s second president and founding dean of the University’s medical school. 

Rouff said that without further reasoning of the statue’s removal and clarification of plans for its return, the tone and intention behind the University’s move are difficult to nail down. 

To gain context on bronze statue maintenance, the Daily Trojan asked campus facilities teams what their cleaning processes look like. In a statement to the paper, a member of Facilities Management at Loyola Marymount University wrote that the department never removes statues to clean them. USC declined to provide information on its own cleaning process on behalf of the Facilities Planning and Management team.

Jeremy Chua, a sixth-year doctoral candidate in history, said he hasn’t heard much about USC’s founding or the legacies of its earliest leaders from the University. In Chua’s view, Widney’s history of being “complicit” in vigilante killings but likely not carrying them out himself is a “gray area” that warrants attention and analysis. However, he said USC community members today shouldn’t be in the business of exonerating or chastising Widney.  

Speaking broadly about movements to remove statues of controversial historical figures, Chua said keeping statues standing promotes discussion and recognition of the depicted individuals’ faults.

“I do think that we mistake removing these statues as social progress,” Chua said. “Sometimes, after you remove a statue, those conversations just disappear. You don’t have kind of the nexus point to get people talking again under the statue.”

Widney isn’t the first prominent campus figure scrutinized during President Carol Folt’s leadership. In 2022, USC renamed the Center for International and Public Affairs, which previously held the name of USC’s fifth president and known eugenicist Rufus von KleinSmid, to honor alum and Native American leader Joseph Medicine Crow. 

At her previous post as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Folt called to remove a central campus statue — known as Silent Sam — honoring former students who had fought for the slave-holding Confederacy. The controversy played a part in her resignation from the position in 2018. Conservatives slammed Folt’s opposition to the statue, and pushes from the college’s board of trustees had her leave months earlier than planned.

Addressing the audience at her 2019 USC inauguration, during which a student demonstration connected Folt’s activism against Silent Sam to the Von KleinSmid building, Folt said, “I want to assure you that we will continue to tackle these problems until they are corrected.” 

It remains unclear when the University will re-install the Widney statue.