Update: James Blair & Magruder Campaigns
The Campaign for Honorable and Inclusive School Names give updates on their requests to change names in Williamsburg and York County.
Hi all,
Long time! :) I wanted to share a presentation I gave this June along with Mary Lassiter at a town hall hosted by the Village Initiative.
This event came shortly after the Williamsburg-James City County school board decided not to move forward with changing the name of James Blair Middle School, despite the evidence we presented about Blair’s role in institutionalizing slavery in Virginia, and despite the racist slurs that appeared in the community survey about the name change.
My portion of the presentation covers the report I published on how the school came to be named after James Blair in 1954, a moment when WJCC doubled down on segregation after the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
Mary’s portion focuses on our campaign to rename Magruder Elementary school in York County, which is named after a Confederate general. The York County school board recently conducted its own survey, but it has not shared the results and has not made a decision on the name change.
Regardless of the school boards’ inaction, our Campaign for Honorable and Inclusive School Names is still committed to changing the names of these schools to ensure that every student in our area feels welcome and is treated with dignity. If you’d like to get involved, please get in touch.
But what about Round the Triangle?
Yeah…sorry I’m still thinking about what to do with this newsletter, but please let me know if you have ideas!
-Joe