CPS unveils new process for schools to drop racist namesakes

Five more Chicago public schools are getting new names, some of them to replace racist or problematic namesakes, as the school system unveiled a new process Wednesday for more schools to be renamed in the future.

Chicago Public Schools officials have been working on an updated naming policy for more than two years after a Chicago Sun-Times investigation found 30 schools were named for slaveholders, and schools named after white people — mostly men — outnumbered those named for African Americans by 4-1, Latinos 9-1 and indigenous people 120-1. Those findings surprised district officials, who vowed to make improvements.

Schools looking to change their names can now submit a request, launch community engagement that takes students’ opinions into consideration, draft an equity plan and vote on a name. The school’s regional administrator and then the Board of Education must approve a change before it’s made.

“Our updated policy is more collaborative with not only our principals and LSC members, but our school communities, including, and most importantly, our students,” Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said. “Lifting up student voice is one of the most important actions we can take as educators. Our students want their voices heard, and having a say in their school’s namesakes is the first step in being partners in a global society.”

Students criticized the district in late 2021 — a year after the Sun-Times report — for taking longer than promised to release the new policy. A handful of schools changed their names since then, and three more schools used the process in recent months and will have new names for the next school year, officials announced.

Tonti Elementary in Gage Park, named for explorer Enrico Tonti, will become Monarcas Academy. Tonti was among the first Europeans to reach of the mouth of the Mississippi River from the top, and he’s credited with the founding of Peoria, Illinois. But two enslaved people were in his traveling party, and it wasn’t clear if Tonti owned them.

CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova said the school community chose Monarcas as its new name because the word is Spanish for monarch, and “like many families in this community, the monarch butterfly travels from Mexico to Chicago.”

Over in Avalon Park, Caldwell Academy of Math & Science will become Daisy Bates Academy of Social Justice. Charles P. Caldwell was a Chicago physician and president of Chicago’s Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. During Caldwell’s time leading the sanitarium, “a Black doctor who had graduated from Cornell, stood at the top of the civil service list and was toured through the hospital by Dr. Caldwell himself, was dismissed for his skin color before he could start working there,” according to the Sun-Times investigation.

Daisy Bates, the school’s new namesake, was an American civil rights activist, publisher and journalist whose newspaper documented the battle to end segregation in Arkansas.

And in Bridgeport, McClellan Elementary will transition to Minnie Miñoso Academy. It was named for George B. McClellan, a Union Army commander who used a racial slur in statements after the Civil War and viewed slavery as an institution recognized in the U.S. Constitution and entitled to federal protection, the Sun-Times reported.

Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso was a Cuban baseball player who played in the Negro Leagues and became an All-Star third baseman. His stardom grew in Chicago, where he became the first Black player on the Chicago White Sox and earned the nicknames “The Cuban Comet” and “Mr. White Sox.”

Two other preschools will have new names: Northwest Early Childhood Center in Jefferson Park will become Catalpa Early Childhood Center for the catalpa tree that’s indigenous to Illinois and grows around the school building, and the Lincoln Park Early Learning Center will be the Dr. Fisher Early Learning Center, named for Dr. Lester Fisher, the first executive director of Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.