Alabama school board votes to rename high schools after notable Black figures

Two Alabama high schools named after confederate figures will be renamed after a pioneering Black chemist, an Alabama judge and a couple of civil rights leaders. 

The Montgomery County Board of Education on Thursday voted 5-2 to rename Robert E. Lee High School to Dr. Percy Julian High School and Jeff Davis High School to JAG High School, the Montgomery Advertiser reports. 

Julian, a Montgomery-born chemist whose name will replace Lee’s on one school, was the first to synthesize the drug physostigmine, which is used to treat glaucoma, according to the American Chemical Society. “JAG” is an acronym for Alabama Judge Frank Johnson, and civil rights activists Ralph Abernathy and Robert Graetz.

As a result of Johnson’s rulings as a federal judge from 1955 to 1979, segregation in Alabama schools and on Montgomery buses was ended, the state poll tax was abolished, Black people were permitted to serve on juries and the Selma-to-Montgomery March was authorized.

Abernathy, a civil rights leader and pastor, was a close ally of Martin Luther King Jr.’s who was arrested with King during civil rights demonstrations.

Graetz was a white clergyman who led a Black congregation in Montgomery. He often faced harassment, including the bombing of his home, because of his affiliation with Black civil rights leaders and his participation in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

It was during the nationwide protests against the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 that the push to rename the high schools began. The school board voted in 2020 to also rename Sidney Lanier High School but later scrapped the plan after the school closed and merged with G.W. Carver.

Davis served as president of the confederacy, while Lee is famously known as a confederate general.

“I’m glad we were able to put it on the table and move it forward so we can get this change going in a positive direction,” said Montgomery Public Schools Superintendent Melvin Brown, WSFA 12 News reports. 

Black students make up 80% of the school system, according to the state.

“Our job is to make our spaces comfortable for our kids. Bottom line is we’re going to make decisions based on what our kids’ needs may be, not necessarily on sentiment around whatever nostalgia may exist,” Brown said.

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