On August 27, 2026, the Franklin & Marshall Communications Department announced the return of Ben and John as physical mascots. Our namesake figures will be given “a fresh look” for our “modern events.” What our administration has conveniently forgotten is that these mascots were not removed due to an antiquated look, but rather the complex legacy they represent as individuals. They were removed because of their ties to the institution of slavery.
Inspired by the work of scholars on other college campuses, in 2022, a committee of F&M faculty released the “Legacy of Slavery Study Group Report” with the goal of investigating F&M’s ties to slavery. While F&M as an institution never had direct ties, one of our namesakes did.
Chief Justice John Marshall, a Virginia plantation owner, owned over 250 slaves in his lifetime. His Supreme Court rulings consistently favored slave owners and he referred to black people as “pests” in his reports. Franklin’s views of slavery evolved with age. Although an abolitionist, he profited from runaway slave ads and anti-abolition articles in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette.
The committee also provided recommendations for future approaches and how F&M can continue this work. They suggested “reconsider[ing] the physical statuary and naming of buildings on campus” and adding plaques to better contextualize our history.
None of this has happened. Instead, the college waited. Waited for its student body to have no memory of Ben and John’s vandalized statues drenched in red paint in 2021 as community members were disgusted with the Atlantic’s article about John Marshall. Waited until most students were unaware this committee and report existed. Waited for a political climate in which difficult conversations such as these are minimized and often silenced.
A mascot, by definition, “is a person, animal, or object chosen to represent a group, organization, or brand, and is often believed to bring good luck.” Mascots should never be a specific person because people are complex and flawed. It forces the community they represent to not only accept, but indirectly celebrate those flaws. Ben and John are not Bert and Ernie or Statler and Waldorf; they are real men who altered the lived experiences of countless individuals. We are Diplomats; John Marshall has no right to be our good luck charm.
I am not suggesting the college abandon the namesake of Ben and John in their entirety, but the choice to reinstate them as a mascot feels like a mockery of the work our academic community has produced. Reckoning with Lancaster is an incredible project that is a continuation of the research of the Legacy of Slavery at F&M study group. How, as an administration, are you going to be proud of that research, promote that research as an asset to the community, and then make decisions that actively work against the ethos of the project?
There is speculation that this decision was partially influenced by alumni and donors who do not want to see these mascots go. This is an embarrassing lesson to send to students: to succumb to those with financial power even if it goes against the ethics that the college claims to teach us as citizens.
This is not a battle amidst a culture war. This is a matter of respect. It matters that our medical Honor Society is named after a man who believed black people could be turned “back into” white people and hypothesized leprosy was caused by the blackness of skin. It matters that Buchanan Hall is named after a man who, according to the report, “opposed the abolitionist movement, supported the Dred Scott decision, and considered enslaved people as property.” It matters that students are expected to cheer for and find a collective identity through the caricaturization of a slave owner.
The home page of our website reads, “Learn with Purpose. Lead with Impact.” I sincerely hope our own administration embodies this message in the future. History cannot be “reimagined” for convenience, but it can be ignored with devastating consequences. I hope they are uncomfortable with their heavy emphasis on “fresh” and “updated” looks of Ben and John, and reflect on how this college can better acknowledge our own history and identity.
Senior Lily Andrey is the Editor-in-Chief. Her email is landrey@fandm.edu.