In the seven decades since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional, a lot has changed in Houston ISD. Desegregating its schools took years, and the district has had a number of Black and Hispanic superintendents in recent decades.
However, the titles of three HISD institutions serve as a clear reminder of the district’s segregated past, casting a pall over them.
Former district executives who battled to maintain racial segregation in the district after the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision are honored by the names of two HISD schools, Petersen Elementary School and Scarborough High School, as well as one sports complex, Delmar Sports Complex.
District officials are now beginning the process of perhaps renaming the three buildings as well as five other schools whose namesakes are associated with historical crimes such as Native American genocide and slavery.
The Rice School/La Escuela Rice, Lamar and Scarborough High Schools, Welch Middle School, and Eliot, Petersen, and Roberts Elementary Schools are the campuses.
HISD Superintendent Mike Miles has asked the principals of the seven schools to form community committees to discuss potential replacement names in response to inquiries from the Houston Landing in late November.
Families at each of the seven campuses received emails from HISD in late November informing them that inquiries were being made into the historical individual who is the namesake of their institution. Miles, the principal of each school, and the division administrator in charge of each campus signed the letter.
According to the HISD leaders, these historical personalities represented a difficult and traumatic period in our history, even if they were significant to our state, city, and district. You might no longer believe that these accurately reflect who we are now or who we aspire to be, as Houston is one of the most resilient and diverse cities in the country.
According to the letter, your community will make the final decision and families will have the chance to lead the renaming process. Miles might forward the idea to HISD’s state-appointed board, which must vote to accept any changes, if a committee is established and agrees on a name change.
Following a nationwide debate over the removal of statues, facility names, and other symbols that featured the likeness of historical persons associated with slavery, the initial steps were taken a few years ago. While opponents claim the procedures can be time-consuming and cause division among communities, proponents of such changes typically suggest that new names enable communities to move past unpleasant parts of history.
After a heated dispute that split the district, HISD renamed eight schools that honored Confederate figures in the mid-2010s. Although some community members have occasionally voiced concerns, the district has since received little criticism over the names of the seven schools currently under consideration and Delmar Sports Complex.
Audrey Momanaee, president of the HISD Board, stated that any selections made now would be based on community feedback and more study, but she was not sure if a larger range of possible name changes were taken into consideration in the mid-2010s.
To be honest, at this time, I simply don’t know enough about any one individual or name to be able to make a judgment, Momanaee stated. I suppose it’s still up in the air because the community hasn’t purchased anything before us yet.
Eight names in question
Although some have complex histories, the names of former superintendents, school board members, and other community leaders may be found on dozens of HISD buildings.
James Delmar and Henry Petersen, two of those board members, served on the HISD board for a total of 30 years and had notable professional positions in the city.
Delmar and Petersen joined the group of HISD board members who were adamantly opposed to the district’s full integration after the court invalidated separate but equal in 1954. During board sessions, Delmar blasted the Civil Rights Movement, while Petersen claimed that enforcing integration through the legal system amounted to educational dictatorship and ruined the cordial racial relations.
The pair often missed board meetings and boycotted votes when pro-integration trustees assumed control of the board. Petersen then hailed the victory of a candidate who declared she would sooner be imprisoned than integrate HISD after opponents of desegregation won many elections to regain control of the board.
Scarborough High’s namesake, George Cameron Scarborough, served as HISD’s acting superintendent and deputy superintendent for a brief period in the late 1950s. Scarborough’s brother, Walter, is the namesake of HISD’s Scarborough Elementary School.
Scarborough was a member of the Texas Citizens Council at the time, which was established to oppose desegregation. Scarborough’s plan also called for Black teachers to watch white teachers teach lessons to Black kids while standing behind a one-way mirror. Known as the Peeping Tom concept, the proposal was met with disdain and derision; at the time, a major Black-owned daily called it an outright insult.
There has also been debate around other historical people that HISD has named schools after in recent decades. Among them are:
- Mirabeau Lamar, who served as the second president of Texas, waged war on Native Americans and advocated for their total extinction.
- Oran Roberts, a Confederate commander, president of the 1861 Secession Convention and Texas governor from 1879 to 1883.
- Louie Welch, who served several terms as mayor of Houston in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but infamously responded to a question about how to prevent HIV/AIDS by saying shoot the queers on a hot mic.
- William Rice, who founded Rice University and held at least 15 enslaved people as property during his life, historical records show.
- Charles Eliot, the president of Harvard University for 40 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who criticized racial segregation, opposed interracial marriage and supported eugenic sterilization.
There are about 270 schools in HISD. Numerous organizations have the names of notable Black and Latino leaders in the area, including those who have made significant contributions to civil rights.
Community response
Nine relatives of Petersen Elementary students told the Landing that they were unaware of the school’s moniker and unsure if their kids had been educated about Henry Petersen or his resistance to integration. The majority stated that they were more concerned with the caliber of education their kids were receiving than with the name of the institution.
According to Ana Alvarez, a parent of students in the second and fifth grades at Petersen Elementary, the school is good. The children receive a decent education and gain a lot of knowledge.
However, when the Landing mentioned Henry Petersen’s anti-integration views, two parents reacted more strongly. One stated she couldn’t speak, while the other argued school officials ought to change the name.
Naturally, I dislike segregation. According to Dealbertice Ajayi, whose kindergartener attends Petersen Elementary, nothing should be hidden from any child.
A few people in the community have raised their voices in support of the cause. For years, during board meetings, Sonya Lucas-Roberts, also known as Sister Mama Sonya, pleaded with the district to rename Delmar Sports Complex. The district’s central office, named for Hattie Mae White, the first Black board member of HISD, is located next to the sports complex.
I was telling the board that our young Black boys should not have to play in a stadium that was named for a man that was an avowed racist, Lucas-Roberts said. Even if the boys were unaware of it, that was an insult to them.
HISD board member Cassandra Bandy said she would support some campuses changing their names if the school community decides it s a good idea. In the mid-2010s, when HISD changed some campus names, local figures like Delmar, Petersen and Scarborough were not so obvious compared to nationally known Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee, Bandy said.
She hopes the board can usher through any community-endorsed name changes efficiently, so that the board can return its focus to issues more directly related to improving academic performance.
Let’s deal with it. Let’s go on. Let s get it out of the way, Bandy said. Let s just not spend time and resources on performative acts.
The Landing’s Houston ISD is covered by Asher Lehrer-Small. You can contact him directly [email protected] or follow him on Instagram at @by_ash_lson and @small_asheron X.
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