University of Chicago removes tributes to Stephen Douglas

CHICAGO (AP) - The University of Chicago has removed a bronze plaque and stone that publicly honored Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator from Illinois in the 1800s.

'œDouglas does not deserve to be honored on our campus'ť because he 'œprofited from his wife's ownership of a Mississippi plantation where Black people were enslaved,'ť university President Robert Zimmer said in an email to students Tuesday.

Douglas probably is best known for a series of debates with Abraham Lincoln in 1858. He was a U.S. senator who lost the 1860 presidential election to Lincoln.

Zimmer said a plaque and a stone from a university that preceded the University of Chicago would be moved to a campus research center, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

'œDouglas died in 1861 and had no connection to the University of Chicago that was founded in 1890 as a new institution with a distinct mission," Zimmer said.