New names

 Should Waukegan Schools be renamed?

Webster and Jefferson Middle Schools are getting new names this fall. The names haven't been completely decided upon yet, but will be chosen soon and the name changes will become effective in July. 

Webster Middle School

This is a big step in Waukegan and in the United States. Many other districts in more democratic and racially diverse areas are choosing this path in renaming schools. However, is this step really the best choice? Ultimately it depends on the community members in which the school is located. But are some people being erased from school names and from history without completely understanding their actual and complete historical roles? Many critics of the renaming process say that erasing these names, such as the former president Thomas Jefferson and former secretary of state Daniel Webster, from our schools does not take into account he actual historical record of these figures. 

Monticello, Jefferson's plantation

In the case of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, it is absolutely true that he was a slave owner. However, Jefferson personally was against slavery, freed some of his own slaves and after his wife died, probably had a long-term relationship with an African American woman and had children who were of mixed race. Jefferson also abolished the slave trade as president and believed in the gradual freeing of all slaves in the United States after they had been taught and prepared for employment. None the less Jefferson did own more than 600 slaves as a plantation owner. 

Thomas Jefferson and his likely partner Sally Hemings

In the case of Daniel Webster, the links to slavery are much less clear. Webster was from New England and never owned slaves. Slavery was illegal in the northern states, including in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where Webster lived. In addition he was anti-slavery and opposed the extension of slavery in new territories of the United States before the Civil War. However, Webster also favored compromise with the southern, slave-holding states and did not want the government to interfere with slavery where it already existed because he did not want the south to leave the United States, which they did after Lincoln was elected. This is what caused the American Civil War.

Daniel Webster

In both cases the evidence linking these two American leaders with slavery and African Americans is not completely clear and unambiguous. Even the slave holder Thomas Jefferson had a very complicated relationship with the institution of slavery and with black people. None the less, it is ultimately up to the community of Waukegan itself  and its citizens whether they wish to rename the schools. 

Question: should the Waukegan schools be renamed?

Obama Middle School? Waukegan School District 60 Board given 6 choices for renaming buildings over namesakes’ slavery ties

Debate over renaming schools remains impassioned almost a year after George Floyd's death

School Renaming Shouldn’t Be an Exercise in Ideology and Ignorance