MPS renames Lee, Jeff Davis high schools for chemist, civil rights heroes

Jemma Stephenson, Montgomery Advertiser
·2 min read
Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, center, speaks with attorney Fred D. Gray, left, and the Rev. Robert S. Graetz, right of Abernathy, about the bus boycott settlement in Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 21, 1956. (AP Photo)
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After two years, the Montgomery County Board of Education has voted to change the names of Robert E. Lee High School and Jefferson Davis High School.

Lee High School will be named for Montgomery-born chemist Percy Julian, a Montgomery native who was the first to synthesize the drug physostigmine, which made it readily available to treat glaucoma, according to the American Chemical Society.

Jefferson Davis will be known as "JAG," named for Judge Frank M. Johnson and civil rights icons Ralph Abernathy and the Rev. Robert Graetz.

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTense night as Montgomery board renames Lee, Jeff Davis high schools

Johnson’s rulings are credited with ending segregation in Alabama schools and on Montgomery buses, eliminating the state poll tax, allowing Black people to serve on juries and authorizing the Selma-to-Montgomery March.

Abernathy was a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and a civil rights leader in his own right. MPS Superintendent Melvin J. Brown called Abernathy "a champion for equity and equality throughout his life.”

Graetz, a white clergyman in Montgomery who led a Black congregation, was a frequent target of harassment and even bombings at his home because of his affiliation with Black civil rights leaders and participation in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

A renaming committee surfaced the names, which were presented to the school board last winter. The committee offered both a short list to the board, followed by a longer list that included the names that were ultimately chosen.

The school board voted in 2020 to rename Lee, Davis and Sidney Lanier High School after the nation erupted in protest over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Lanier eventually was dropped from renaming consideration when the board decided to close the school and merge its student body with G. W. Carver.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: MPS renames Lee, Jeff Davis schools for chemist, civil rights heroes