A Raleigh school named after a white supremacist is getting a new, inclusive name
On the same day a statue of white supremacist Josephus Daniels came down in Raleigh, Wake County school leaders voted to remove his name from a Raleigh middle school.
The county school board unanimously voted Tuesday to rename Daniels Middle School as Oberlin Middle School. Board members cited the role that Daniels had played as publisher of The News & Observer in 1898 to help violently overthrow the elected multiracial city government in Wilmington.
”It is important when you walk on a campus and see a name and see the doors and see the logo of the Wake County Public School System that this is a welcoming place — and a welcoming place to all residents, all students and all families,” said school board chairman Keith Sutton.
Sutton added the name change to the agenda at the last minute.
“This is a very important step,” Sutton said. “I understand some may say it’s symbolic in a lot of ways, but one that I think is long overdue.”
New name honors Oberlin community
The school is on Oberlin Road near Cameron Village. Sutton proposed using the name of Oberlin to honor the community that former slaves founded.
Daniels Middle School also is near the former Oberlin School, a public school that served Black students until it closed in 1966.
“It is entirely fitting to reopen Oberlin School to make a bold statement that we must be anti-racist, that education is the great equalizer and we must make it so,” said school board member Jim Martin.
Earlier Tuesday, Josephus Daniels’ family removed a statue of him from Raleigh’s Nash Square. In addition to being a publisher, he was a former U.S. Navy secretary. The statue had been in Nash Square since 1985, 37 years after Daniels’ death
“The time is right,” Frank Daniels III, a former executive editor of The N&O, told The News & Observer Tuesday morning. “I don’t think anyone would say that it’s not the appropriate time to move the statue of Josephus to a more appropriate location.”
The killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota has sparked a call to rename places and remove statues and monuments connected to white supremacists, Confederates and segregationists.
Online petition called for name change
An online petition calling for renaming Daniels Middle School was created last week and had more than 2,100 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
The petition says it’s time to “end the practice of glorifying racism and violence against African Americans.”
In 1898, Daniels conspired with political leader Furnifold Simmons and former Confederate Army officer Alfred Moore to convince white residents that the black residents could steal their jobs and were a threat to their safety, The N&O has reported. This was done through racist speeches, pamphlets and newspaper editorials and cartoons.
Dozens of black residents were killed, a black-owned newspaper was set on fire and several thousand residents were forced to leave their town and hide. In 2006, The N&O apologized for its role in the massacre.
School board member Christine Kushner said Josephus Daniels later gave only a “tepid” recantation of the violence.
“So working for justice, we can not be tepid,” Kushner said. “We can not be neutral. We are compelled to teach our students and our employees and our community that Black lives matter.”
The Wilmington Massacre has received more notice since the January publication of the book “Wilmington’s Lie” by journalist David Zucchino, which describes the role Daniels and others played in it.
Family wanted to keep name on school
Daniels died in 1948. His family owned The N&O until McClatchy bought it in 1995. The Daniels family has denounced Josephus’ bigoted views.
Frank Daniels Jr. of Raleigh, retired president and publisher of The News & Observer, said in a statement Tuesday that “Josephus Daniels’ legacy of service to North Carolina and our country does not transcend his reprehensible stand on race and his active support of racist activities,” The N&O reported.
Frank Daniels III, son of Frank Daniels Jr. and great-grandson of Josephus Daniels, said Tuesday that the family would still like to have its name included in the school. He pointed to all the contributions the family has made to Raleigh, including his father’s work.
“It’s the school board’s choice,” Frank Daniels III said in an interview. “They do what they want to do. The Daniels family has been engaged in trying to make Raleigh a better place.”
Several school board members said the name change was due only to Josephus Daniels’ actions and not a reflection on the rest of the family. School board vice chairwoman Roxie Cash said that Frank Daniels Jr. has been a voice for equality for all people.
“I just want to reiterate this is about one person in that family and not about the family,” Cash said.
School name changes rare
Since the mid-1970s, Wake County has moved away from naming schools after individuals. Schools are now typically named after communities, roads or geographic features.
School name changes are rare.
Wake Forest High School and Wake Forest Middle School dropped Rolesville from their names after Rolesville High School and Rolesville Middle School opened.
In August, the school board voted to rename East Wake Middle School as Neuse River Middle School. District leaders hope the rebranding will improve the school’s image.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 7:17 PM.
