University of Florida Strips Marx’s Name From Library Study Room

A man walks past boards celebrating 200 years of Karl Marx's birth in Trier, Germany on May 3, 2018. (Photo by Patrik Stollarz/AFP via Getty Images)

The University of Florida has removed the name of “Communist Manifesto” author Karl Marx from a library study room after it gained media attention.

According to a March 7 report by Campus Reform, the public university had one of its 14 group study rooms at the George A. Smathers Libraries named “Karl Marx Study Room.“ In a photo publicized by the education news site, Marx’s name is inscribed on a plaque at the room’s entrance, with a short passage describing him as a ”philosopher, radical economist, and revolutionary critic of all that exists.”

The description further credited Marx as being the “founder of scientific socialism” whose “reputation as a radical thinker” emerged during the rise of the socialist political parties in the 1870s and 1880s and for laying the foundation of socialist and communist movements around the world.

“The unique extent of the influence of Marx’s materialist explanation of the workings of society, economics and history, inevitably saw Marxist theory extend its influence to literary criticism,” the plaque read.

Some other Library West study rooms were named after historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglas, William Shakespeare, and Ernest Hemingway. The library’s online booking system previously displayed all those names, but it now only refers to the rooms by numbers, with “Karl Marx Study Room” becoming “Room 229.”

In a statement to Campus Reform, the university said that name change has to do with the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“Given current events in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world, we determined it was appropriate to remove the name of Karl Marx that was placed on a group study room at the University of Florida in 2014,” a University of Florida spokesperson said.

Earlier this month, the Florida State Legislature voted to designate Nov. 7 as “Victims of Communism Memorial Day” in remembrance of and honoring those who have died and suffered under communist regimes. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to approve the measure and make his state the fifth in the United States to do so.

“The scary reality about communism and those who promise to bring equality and liberation is that they promise freedom and economic equality—but all that they bring is misery, destruction, and death,” said Republican state Rep. David Borrero, the bill’s sponsor in the lower chamber.

“We need this bill because 1 in 5 people live under communism today in China, Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, and Laos. Over 100 million people have died because of these failed economic policies,” Borrero added, pointing to a report that says nearly half of Generation Z would be willing to vote for a socialist and in 1 in 5 would be willing to vote for a communist.

According to the latest version of the “Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism, Communism, and Collectivism” by non-profit group Victims of Communism Memorial, pro-socialist sentiment increased among younger Americans with Gen Z’s approval at 49 percent in 2020, up from 40 percent in 2019. Favorable opinions toward Marxism also increased in the youngest generation, with 30 percent of Gen Z having a favorable view of Marxism in 2020, up 6 percentage points from the previous year.