It’s official: Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson all OUT as names for San Francisco schools

Last October, the San Francisco Unified School District’s School Names Advisory Committee, formed in 2018, noted that over 40 buildings named after people with connections to “slavery, genocide [and] oppression” could be affected.

Other considerations included “anyone directly involved in the colonization of people,” “those who exploit workers/people,” and “those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs.”

Yesterday, the school board approved the renaming of 44 schools, including Abraham Lincoln and George Washington High Schools, and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the vote was 6-1. The majority noted the renaming effort “is timely and important, given the country’s reckoning with a racist past.”

School board member Mark Sanchez added “It’s a message to our families, our students and our community. It’s not just symbolic. It’s a moral message.”

Critics of the renaming effort said the School Names Advisory Committee was “not thorough,” using sites such as Wikipedia and cherry-picked sources instead of “academics, historical records or in-depth research.” The committee reportedly didn’t even know whether Roosevelt Middle School was named after our 26th president … or 32nd.