Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 6-30-17

Local
Board Considers Changing Name Of Elementary School
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
In 1906, the Hillsborough County School District named an elementary school in honor of Southern war hero, Robert E. Lee. Five years later, government offi- cials held a ceremony to a confederate monument in front of the courthouse.
Now, more than 100 years later, some residents want the name of the school changed and the monument moved. However, the group is meeting with some opposi- tion.
Recently, members of the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners voted 4-3 to keep the Confederate statue that is located in front of the old County Court- house. Their decision has sparked protests and anger throughout the county.
Commissioner Les Miller, Jr., made the mo- tion to move the statue. However, Commissioners
DR. CARTER G. WOODSON
Stacy White, Victor Crist, Sandy Murman, and Ken Hagan voted to keep it.
Commissioner White
took the measure a step fur- ther and made a motion that no war monuments could be removed. The motion passed.
However, supporters of changing the name for the school were more successful. While the board did not agree to change the name,
TAMARA SHAMBURGER ... Hillsborough County School District 5 Rep.
they did agree to examine the procedure for possibly changing the name of the school.
Robert E. Lee Elementary School was constructed in 1906 and is the oldest school building in Hillsborough County. It was originally opened as the Michigan Av- enue Grammar School. In 1943, the name of the street where the school is located was changed to Columbus Drive.
FRED HEARNS
... Community Activist
It was at that time that the School Board changed its name to honor Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It is currently named the Robert E. Lee School of Technology.
Since that time, the homes located around the school are largely occupied by African Americans and other minorities, which is re- flective of the school’s popu- lation.
Board member Tamara Shamburger, the only African American on the board, questioned the wis- dom of keeping the school’s name as it stands when the entire country is re-examin- ing the justification to con- tinue to honor Confederate leaders who fought against the union.
She further said to keep Lee’s name on the school is as offensive to Blacks and to many others as it would be to some taxpayers to name a public school for controver- sial figures, such as Minis- ters Malcolm X or Louis Farrakhan.
Community activist Fred Hearns attended the meet-
ing. He said, “Several speak- ers at the meeting supported removing Lee’s name from the school, while a few others spoke in favor of keeping the name as it is.
“Among those organiza- tions that spoke in favor of removing the Lee name were representatives of the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the Hills- borough County Branch of the NAACP and the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs (TOBA).”
Two of those who ad- dressed the school board rec- ommended renaming the school in honor of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who founded ASALH in 1915. Dr. Woodson visited Tampa Heights in the late 1920s as the house guest of Tampa Urban League Executive Director Benjamin Mays.
Dr. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black His- tory,” founded Negro History Week (now Black History Month) in the early 1920s. The second African Ameri- can to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard College (following Dr. W. E. B. DuBoise), Dr. Woodson selected the second week in February for the occasion because it in- cludes the birthdays of both President Abraham Lin- coln and his chief Black ad- visor, Frederick Douglass.
Superintendent Jeff Eakens agreed to report back to the board on the proper process of changing the Lee School’s name at an upcoming board meeting.
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