Bowdoin College has announced that it is ending an award named for Jefferson Davis that since 1972 has been given annually to a student or students excelling in constitutional law. The award, a cash prize, was endowed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Davis, the Confederate president, received an honorary degree from the college in 1858, prior to the Civil War.
In a statement announcing the end of the prize, President Clayton Rose said, “It is inappropriate for Bowdoin College to bestow an annual award that continues to honor a man whose mission was to preserve and institutionalize slavery.” The college is returning the endowment fund to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.