Durham names new school for two: a civil rights icon and a pioneering local educator

After months of consideration, the Durham school board has agreed to name a new elementary school after not one, but two trailblazers.

The Durham Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to name the school in southern Durham the Murray-Massenburg Elementary School after human rights activist the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray and the first African American female principal in the Durham City School System, Betty Doretha Massenburg.

The school is scheduled to open in August 2023 at South Roxboro Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in the Hope Valley Farms area, The News & Observer has previously reported.

Murray, the first Black person to earn a degree from Yale Law School, was a legal scholar, author, feminist, poet, Episcopal priest, labor organizer, and multiracial Black, and LBGBTQ community member, according to a district news release.

“Her legal arguments and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution were winning strategies for public school desegregation, women’s rights in the workplace, and an extension of rights to LGBTQ+ people based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” the release stated.

Massenburg was the first Black female principal in Durham, leading Holloway Street Elementary in 1975.

“Her passion and commitment to teaching Durham students inspired not only the children, but also the community,” the release stated. “She was a proud career educator, business owner, motivational speaker, poet, author, and community servant leader.

Massenburg also taught at Crest Street and Fayetteville Street elementary schools; and, served as dean of girls and assistant principal at Rogers-Herr Middle School.

Third naming option favored geography

The school board was initially divided on possible names, which also included Third Fork Elementary School because of the school’s location near a creek.

Board member Matt Sears suggested the board take another look at that option, citing board policy to prioritize names tied to geographic features. He also said while Murray has been well researched, Massenburg had not been as thoroughly vetted.

“I don’t think we’ve tasked the administration with taking a deep, deep dive into this name,” Sears said.

But board member Frederick Ravin said he wanted future students to have a relationship with the names on their schools, “with who these people were ... what steps they took along their journey, and how we are revering them as we may one day revere them [the students] as well.”

“I cannot fathom naming a school that costs 70-plus million dollars after a rock,” he said.

This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 8:23 AM.