More than 1,500 people signed a petition demanding that the Atlanta school board reject a proposal to rename Henry W. Grady High School after civil rights activist and journalist Ida B. Wells.
A naming committee appointed in March to review the Grady name recommended last week that the school be called Ida B. Wells High School. The full board is expected to vote on the new name at a Monday meeting.
But some say the Wells' name, which garnered support from four of the seven committee members, should be dismissed because it wasn’t the most popular choice in an online survey conducted by the committee.
“She’s beyond reproach. You can’t think of one bad thing to say about her, but that doesn’t mean that her name is the right name for this school in this community at this time,” said Audrea Rease, whose daughter attends the Atlanta middle school that feeds into Grady High.
Rease started an online petition that urges the board to vote “no” on the Wells' name. The petition had 1,582 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.
The committee narrowed down dozens of suggested names and then sent out an electronic survey to gather feedback about the top five names.
About 1,600 people responded, with 43% favoring the name Midtown High School. The Wells' name came in second with 21.5%, followed closely by Piedmont High School with nearly 20%.
Combined, the two location-based names, Midtown and Piedmont, amassed nearly two thirds of the survey tally.
Atlanta Public Schools' policy doesn’t require a survey. Board member Leslie Grant, who led the naming committee, said she made it clear during meetings that although community input was important, the recommendation wouldn’t be a “numbers game.”
“Surveys are meant to inform not dictate,” she said.
Cathy Lepik, whose daughter is a Grady High sophomore, said she feels the process ignored public input. APS already has a South Atlanta High and a North Atlanta High, so she said adding a Midtown High makes sense.
“The constituents want a location-based name,” she said. “Let’s drop anything that could be controversial in any way.”
Committee members picked Wells in part because of the contrast her name offered compared to Henry Grady.
Wells was a Black woman. Grady was a white man. Both were journalists.
Earlier this year, students petitioned the board to drop Grady’s name from their school. They said that Grady, a managing editor of The Atlanta Constitution who died in 1889, held a “staunchly racist ideology” that helped cement white supremacy in the South.
Wells, a Mississippi-born journalist who died in 1931, promoted civil rights and exposed the horrors of lynching in her work.
The survey allowed respondents to provide written comments about the name they liked best, and Grant said she found those opinions compelling. Many who favored a place-based name said they did so because they wanted to avoid controversy.
Renaming the high school to honor Wells would address Grady’s legacy head-on, Grant said.
“Let’s confront that history in a very relevant way, and that is what this is. It’s not shrinking away,” she said.
Rease said Wells has no direct connection to Atlanta, and the new name shouldn’t be chosen because it serves as “a foil or a counterpoint” to Grady.
“It’s very reactionary,” Rease said. “To insert [Wells] into this conversation is an agenda that just kind of diminishes her.”
Committee members reviewed the survey results before making their recommendation. Three members who favored a location-based name said they did so because of the strong support for Midtown or Piedmont.
The survey results were posted publicly on the school board’s website after the committee made its recommendation.
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