Education Week - January 23, 2019 - 13

SCHOOLS NAMED FOR PRO-SEGREGATION POLITICIANS
Education Week found 22 public schools named after politicians who signed the Southern Manifesto opposing school integration after the 1954 Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision.
School Name

Named After

District Name

City

State

Allen Ellender School

Allen J. Ellender, U.S. senator from Louisiana

Jefferson Parish

Marrero

Percent Black 2016-17
24%

Ellender Memorial High School

Allen J. Ellender, U.S. senator from Louisiana

Terrebonne Parish

Houma

37%

Charles E. Bennett Elementary School

Charles E. Bennett, representative from Florida

Clay

Green Cove Springs FL

21%

Graham A. Barden Elementary

Graham A. Barden, representative from North Carolina

Craven County Schools

Havelock

16%

Fulbright Elementary School

J.W. Fulbright, U.S. senator from Arkansas

Little Rock School District

Little Rock

45%

J. William Fulbright Junior High School

J.W. Fulbright, U.S. senator from Arkansas

Bentonville School District

Bentonville

McClellan Magnet High School

John L. McClellan, U.S. senator from Arkansas

Little Rock School District

Little Rock

89%

Garrison-Pilcher Elementary School

John L. Pilcher, representative from Georgia

Thomas County

Thomasville

37%

Sparkman High School

John Sparkman, U.S. senator from Alabama

Madison County

Harvest

30%

Sparkman Ninth Grade School

John Sparkman, U.S. senator from Alabama

Madison County

Harvest

28%

Sparkman Middle School

John Sparkman, U.S. senator from Alabama

Madison County

Toney

32%

Sparkman Elementary School

John Sparkman, U.S. senator from Alabama

Morgan County

Hartselle

Stennis Voc Tech Complex

John Stennis, U.S. senator from Mississippi

Kemper County School District

DeKalb

Not available

Russell Elementary School

Richard B. Russell, U.S. senator from Georgia

Houston County

Warner Robins

40%

Bob Jones High School

Robert E. Jones, representative from Alabama

Madison City

Madison

22%

Bob Sikes Elementary School

Robert L.F. Sikes, representative from Florida

Okaloosa

Crestview

10%

Spessard L. Holland Elementary School

Spessard L. Holland, U.S. senator from Florida

Polk

Bartow

18%

Spessard L. Holland Elementary School

Spessard L. Holland, U.S. senator from Florida

Brevard

Satellite Beach

Strom Thurmond Career and Technology Center

Strom Thurmond, U.S. senator from South Carolina

Edgefield 01

Johnston

Not available

Strom Thurmond High School

Strom Thurmond, U.S. senator from South Carolina

Edgefield 01

Johnston

50%

Wilbur D. Mills High School

Wilbur D. Mills, representative from Arkansas

Pulaski County Special School District

Little Rock

63%

William M. Colmer Middle School

William M. Colmer, representative from Mississippi

Pascagoula-Gautier School District

Pascagoula

44%

SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics

public schools in Vardaman.
Schools need not be named for the town
where they're located. But Langford noted that
other schools in the county, like the Vardaman
elementary and high schools, are named for the
cities where they are located.
Asked about the idea of black students going
to schools named for a man who insulted the
idea of educating such children, Langford said,
"I don't want anyone in our district to be offended by anything that we're doing, no matter
what it is." And she said she would welcome a
discussion if people raised worries about or opposition to the school names.
However, Langford said, "Until it becomes a
problem, it's not a problem. I have a lot of fish
to fry."
And in other places, some officials have cited
cost as a factor in decisions not to change school
names. Last year, Virginia's Fairfax County district estimated it would cost $368,000 to change
the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School, named for
a Confederate general. The school board recently
voted to change the name to Justice High School.

'White Resistance to Law'
Those who signed the Southern Manifesto,
and others with similar views, have public records extending beyond their views and actions
on civil rights in schools.
Fulbright of Arkansas is known for the prestigious scholarship named after him that provides
research and study opportunities to students in
more than 140 countries, and for his work on foreign relations, particularly during the Vietnam
War, which he came to oppose. McClellan had
a substantial footprint in Senate investigations
into subversive activities during the Cold War,
and for his probes of organized crime.
And Russell wrote the original National
School Lunch Act, which by one estimate provided daily free or reduced-cost meals to 30 million low-income students in fiscal 2017.
The manifesto was not a clear-cut issue for
Southern politicians in the 1950s who did not
make racial segregation their calling card, said
Janine Parry, a professor of political science at
the University of Arkansas' J. William Fulbright
College of Arts and Sciences, which is named

for the senator. Lawmakers like Fulbright had
to weigh the damage not signing the document
might do to their tenure in the Senate.
In a 1997 article for Arkansas Historical
Quarterly, Cambridge University Professor
Tony Badger wrote that Fulbright said he
signed the document only reluctantly, and after
securing changes to the manifesto that moderated its tone. Badger noted that Fulbright never
disavowed this position.
"He still participated in a defense of something
that was indefensible. But he was a politician.
He understood that this was a show of Southern unity," Parry said. "If he didn't participate, he
could be pilloried for it later. He was constantly
balancing what he knew was good public policy
with what his constituency could tolerate."
In the context of education and formal commemoration, distinctions between men like
Fulbright and Thurmond are important when
considering their respective public legacies, said
Kevin Kruse, a Princeton University professor
who has studied segregation and race in South.
Just as men like George Washington owned
slaves but are not primarily remembered as
slave owners, Kruse said, "Fulbright backed
segregation in a lot of ways. But that's not what
he's primarily known for."
By contrast, "I would see a school named after
Thurmond like a school named after [Robert
E.] Lee," Kruse added. "His claim to fame really
was that opposition to civil rights from Truman
up through the Johnson era and beyond. Lee is
clearly the worst case. But I would put Thurmond in the same ballpark."
The various lawmakers' records diverge in
the years after the Southern Manifesto, and
their actions sometimes reflect a shift in attitudes or at least priorities.
In 1970, Fulbright spearheaded the Senate's
rejection of President Richard Nixon's nominee
to the Supreme Court, G. Harrold Carswell, who
was prominent for his hostility to civil rights
and support for segregation. In 1982, Stennis
broke with his previous record by supporting an
extension of the Voting Rights Act, although the
following year, he voted against making Martin
Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday.
Still, Rooks said, while these men may not
have fomented secession and massive armed

I don't want anyone
in our district to
be offended by
anything we're
doing, no matter
what it is. ...
[However] until it
becomes a problem,
it's not a problem.
I have a lot of fish
to fry."
LISA LANGFORD
Superintendent
Calhoun County, Miss.

conflict like their Confederate predecessors, their
reaction to Brown is directly linked to situations
like the deployment of Army troops to uphold
the Brown decision, as in the case of Little Rock
Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.
"You have this white resistance to law," Rooks
said. "It's arguable that a kid sitting in a Strom
Thurmond school would have no idea who he is.
All you know is that the school is named after
someone that matters."

A Welcoming School
Time might render the issue moot in some
communities. At McClellan High School, a magnet school where 719 of the school's 806 students
were black in 2016-17, students will be reassigned to a new high school in 2020, and the plan
is to convert the school into a K-8 facility.
Through a spokeswoman, Little Rock district Superintendent Mike Poore said that to
the best of his knowledge, concern about the
school's name "has not been raised" during
his tenure. A final decision about the new K-8
building's name hasn't been reached, although
the district said many McClellan alumni are
interested in maintaining the school's name.
Parry said that in Arkansas, any discussion
about changing the names of schools named
after men like McClellan and Fulbright would
be "robust." What might be decisive, she said, is
whether pressure to rename such schools came
from inside their respective communities or
from outside.
Asked whether renaming schools named after
ardent segregationists should be a priority for
communities compared to other socioeconomic
challenges they might face, Nesoff of Facing
History and Ourselves, stressed he "would
never want to tell a community what the right
choice for them is to focus on." But he added
that students who are made aware of who their
buildings commemorate and want to explore
the matter further should not be ignored either.
"The things that make a school a welcoming
and safe community are not just the resources
that are put there," he said.
Education Week Librarian Maya Riser-Kositsky
contributed to this article.

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Education Week - January 23, 2019

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