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Mississippi School Named for Jefferson Davis to Be Renamed for Barack Obama

The school was named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America.Credit...Steve Helber/Associated Press

The latest chapter in the country’s continuing reckoning with the legacy of the Confederacy is being written by grade school students.

A call to rename Davis International Baccalaureate Elementary School, which was named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, emerged not from protests or rallies, but from one student’s summer reading assignment. It grew into a participatory civics lesson, as students from kindergarten through fifth grade at the school, in Jackson, Miss., nominated new names, assembled PowerPoint presentations and, at the beginning of the month, cast ballots.

On Oct. 17, at a meeting of the Jackson Public Schools board of trustees, Janelle Jefferson, the president of the school’s PTA, announced that the school community had overwhelmingly voted to rename the school after President Barack Obama.

“If we are going to teach our kids a lesson, it’s this: If there’s something you feel strongly about that you feel needs to change, continue to agitate for it,” Ms. Jefferson said in an interview.

The idea for the name change, which will take effect next academic year, came from Farah Jaentschke, a former student at the school who is now in eighth grade. Four years ago, Farah chose a biography of Davis to fulfill a summer reading requirement, said her mother, Ercilla Hendrix.

It was only after reading the book that Farah realized its subject was the same Davis for which her school was named, Ms. Hendrix said.

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Jacob Jefferson, 8, and his mother, Janelle Jefferson. Mrs. Jefferson is the president of the school’s parent-teacher association.Credit...Emily Wagster Pettus/Associated Press

“And she said: ‘Well, that doesn’t seem right. How can we get the name changed? I just don’t feel like that’s the right name for our school,’” Ms. Hendrix recalled.

Almost 98 percent of the students at Davis Magnet, as community members call the school, are black. It has been ranked as Mississippi’s top elementary school, according to the district’s website, and for the past several years has achieved an A grade from the state’s education department. The state superintendent also recognized the school’s students for achieving the highest reading proficiency in the state during the 2015-16 school year.

From Columbia, S.C., to Charlottesville, Va., to New York City, communities have grappled in recent years with Confederate names and symbols in public spaces. Two other elementary schools in the Jackson school district are named for Confederate generals and leaders, according to The Jackson Free Press: one for James Zachariah George, a colonel who signed the state’s secession ordinance, and one for Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Farah wrote a letter to the school’s principal, but the issue faded when she left Davis for middle school. This summer, it resurfaced after another parent posted a list on social media of the historical figures after whom schools in the district were named.

“I showed it to Farah, and we said, ‘We just can’t bear to look at it again,’” Ms. Hendrix said.

Ms. Hendrix petitioned the school board to allow a name change. In September, the board voted to give authority over school renaming to local parent-teacher organizations and communities.

The Davis Magnet community leapt into action. Over the course of two weeks, the PTA asked students to submit suggestions for new names, with research supporting their picks. Each classroom voted on the nominees and elected a representative to lobby for its selection at a schoolwide assembly on Oct. 4. Ms. Hendrix invited a member of the Hinds County election commission to speak at the assembly.

The next day, students filled out paper ballots. Parents and other community members also received ballots in the mail. Fourth and fifth graders helped oversee the vote, serving as the school’s own election commission.

“We mirrored the national, state and local election process as closely as we could,” Kathleen Grigsby, the school’s principal, said. “They got a civics lesson on what it means to be able to vote. At the end of the day that is what matters: One student can make a difference.”

Parents said they recognized that the renaming might be seen as a political statement, especially after the summer’s violence in Charlottesville. And they acknowledged the symbolic power of naming the school for a man who they believe better embodies the school’s values and demographics. (At the school board meeting, Ms. Jefferson noted that Davis “would probably not be too happy about a diverse school, promoting the education of the very individuals he fought to keep enslaved, being named after him.”)

But they said empowering their children to realize how far their voices could reach was the most important, and most gratifying, impetus behind the name change.

“Many people see race — a predominantly African-American school renamed for an African-American president — but I see children, our future, already making their mark,” Candice Pippins, the vice president of programs for the PTA, said.

At least 21 other schools across the country are named for Barack or Michelle Obama. More than 130 are named for prominent Confederate leaders.

Although Farah no longer attends Davis Magnet, soon to be Obama, she has been elated to see her letter lead to real action, especially because her younger brother, Ty, is a first grader at the school, Ms. Hendrix said. Farah had also been in a state of disbelief — at least until recently.

The reality of the change she had inspired began to sink in only after the new name was formally announced, and in particular, after it began to gain attention in the news and on social media.

After all, for all of Farah’s civic engagement, she’s still a teenager, Ms. Hendrix said.

“She’s a middle schooler, so social media is really important to them right now,” she said. “The fact that she saw it on Instagram, I think, made it real for her.”

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