School board to consider renaming Woodson HS for Carter Woodson
The Fairfax County School Board approved a “forum request” on Sept. 14 to begin the process of renaming W.T. Woodson High School.
When the school opened in 1962, it was named for Wilbert Tucker (W.T.) Woodson, who served as Fairfax County Superintendent from 1929 to 1961. Community members have advocated for changing the school’s name in light of historical documents showing he fought against desegregation.
The forum request, sponsored by seven school board members, recommends the school be named for Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), a nationally renowned scholar, author, educator, and journalist.
Carter Woodson is considered the father of Black history. He founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, founded the scholarly Journal of Negro History (now called the Journal of African American History), and launched “Negro History Week,” the precursor of Black History Month.
As the son of former slaves, Dr. Woodson overcame tremendous childhood hardship before earning degrees from Harvard University and the University of Chicago. He later became a faculty member and dean at Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
There will be a community meeting on the name change proposal on Oct. 4, 6:30-7:30 p.m., in the Woodson cafeteria.
Comments can be submitted on an online feedback form until noon on Oct. 12.
The school board will hold a public hearing on the issue on Oct. 10, which will kick off a second round of community engagement.
In recent years, the school board changed other school names associated with Confederates. JEB Stuart High School was changed to Justice High School. Robert E. Lee High School was renamed for Rep. John Lewis, and Mosby Woods Elementary School is now Mosaic ES.
34 responses to “School board to consider renaming Woodson HS for Carter Woodson”
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Dear God not another one. Leave well enough alone. Build a new high school where it is needed and name it after Carter Woodson. Don’t touch W. T. Woodson. The cost to rebrand a school is an unnecessary expense that FCPS does not need to incurr.
Another effort to erase history. So sad.
Brought to you by… people who hate our country.
You mean people who hate honoring white racists?
Right, anyone who has a different opinion of you hates America. Probably a communist, too. Remind me of the year, 1950-what?
How do they specifically hate our country?
W.T. Woodson helped usher in an integrated FCPS. In one of his most early letters he was against the idea, but his opinion changed and he succesfully led a non-violent integration of schools. He was not a Democrat like Bull Connor who stood in the schoolhouse doors preventing African American children from integrating the schools. I think that he successfully navigated a very complicated time in history and should be recognized for doing it safely and without significant public protest.
So, you’d still rather honor him over:
“Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), a nationally renowned scholar, author, educator, and journalist.
Carter Woodson is considered the father of Black history. He founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, founded the scholarly Journal of Negro History (now called the Journal of African American History), and launched “Negro History Week,” the precursor of Black History Month.
As the son of former slaves, Dr. Woodson overcame tremendous childhood hardship before earning degrees from Harvard University and the University of Chicago. He later became a faculty member and dean at Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences.”
Just say it out loud. You’d rather commemorate a bigot who made a dubious, grudging difference than a person of color who made significant real, lasting, positive contributions.
Kim – People change. W.T. Woodson changed. He succesfully lead the integration of Fairfax County Public Schools. That is no small feat. He deserves to be honored. If we were solely judged based on a single letter or tweet or internet posting, nobody would be worthy of recognition. Plus, unlike Carter Woodson, W.T. Woodson is a local personality. Shouldn’t we be recognizing local personalities as opposed to some obscure person with no connection to Fairfax County?
This is not completely accurate. W.T. Woodson documented his own opposition to desegregation in July 1959. He subsequently supported a plan for the GRADUAL integration of FCPS schools, but that plan was struck down in Federal court in September 1960. Woodson announced his retirement two months later and stepped down in June, 1961. So while desegregation may have started under his leadership, it appears to have been done so reluctantly and was completed under his successor’s tenure.
Yes, this was obviously a “complicated time” (to use your words), but even in the most generous interpretation of his actions, it’s hard to argue that he was a staunch supporter of desegregation and equal rights.
You know what? This fake outrage some of y’all play is really getting tiresome. The kids that actually walk the halls these days want to change the name of the school what’s the big deal? I would rather the kids be in a place they can be proud to go to instead of place they resent, is what I say.
Sounds like a perfect solution! Woodson will still be Woodson, but now it will honor someone who truly deserves it.
Meanwhile, we still honor Woodrow Wilson, who was a lifelong committed white racist; and bow down at the mere utterance of the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a man who was born into a very wealthy family with significant privilege who allegedly “saved democracy” by not following George Washington’s example and instead becoming President-for-Life, and by ordering the American Government to intervene in the peaceful lives of law abiding Japanese-Americans citizens by rounding them up, shipping them away from their homes, and imprisoning them in unimaginably inhumane internment camps.
I am a proud Liberal, but the selective outrage by the arrogant and incredibly ignorant Far-Left in America has gone way off the deep end.
AMEN. the Wilson Bridge name needs to go. He re-segregated the military and the federal government. Not a person to idolize or memorialize. Roosevelt perpetuated a bad recession and pushed it into a 10-year depression with his monetary policies and with his socialist agenda like the WPA.
While I don’t disagree with what you said, it’s completely irrelevant in this context. As far as I’m aware, FCPS doesn’t have any facilities named after either of those two. Even if they did, what does that have to do with the subject of this news story? Should the Woodson community ignore the problematic nature of their namesake because other problematic examples also exist?
Whenever one of these “renamings” happen I am reminded of how there was a committee formed to study and come up with recommendations on whether or not to rename Lee Highway. The majority of votes were in favor of not renaming it. But the committee had predetermined that it would be renamed and hoped the vote would validate their decision. It didn’t but they renamed it anyway.
I do not consider myself a racist for not wanting to rewrite history, except maybe in extreme cases. This school renaming is not an extreme case IMHO.
How is renaming a building rewriting history? If you were to tell me that WTWoddson was a noble school administrator who fought to defeat segregation, THAT would be rewriting history. The community made a choice back when they named the building for WTW, and the community now feels they want a different choice.
What evidence do you have that “the community” wants this change?
“The community” said in a poll that they didn’t want JEB Stuart renamed to “Justice” but the board of supervisors changed the name to “Justice” anyway, despite what “the community” wanted.
Can you elaborate on how these name changes “rewrite” history?
haha at all the crybabies. You boomers should move to florida.
We are moving out of the area, and your tax base will continue to shrink, crime will go up, and you’ll all be worse off.
I have several houses in FL.
Careful what you wish for.
https://wtop.com/dc/2023/09/high-earners-who-left-dc-during-pandemic-cost-city-3-billion-in-tax-revenue-data-reveals/
My thoughts exactly. The article states that inbound gains were from international migration and births. So we are losing high earners and (legal?) immigrants with many children are taking their place.
Linked WTOP news story indicates (1) DC lost $3B in taxable income, not tax revenue; and (2) 40% of the income moved out to the greater DC burbs. Since this is an Annandale blog, I suspect most readers live in closer-in VA. The VA coffers will be nicely enriched by these folks’ relocation. So, really, VA’s tax base WON’T be shrinking, nor should crime be “going up”, nor will we be “worse off”. But let’s not let facts stand in the way of your reactionary rant.
Oh wow, you really owned that commenter! Too bad that Virginia is high on the list of outmigration! And crime is up, especially in Fairfax County.
https://www.newgeography.com/content/007847-population-falls-18-states#:~:text=The%20biggest%20losers%20were%20New,more%20than%20any%20other%20county.
I’m not trying to “own” anybody. If somebody wants to leave the area, that’s fine by me. But when they skew and/or misinterpret publicly-available linked information to suit their opinion, then pile on “increasing crime” and “worse-off”edness to try to factualize their death-spiral view, they deserve to be called out on it.
I don’t see where the “neighbor” misrepresented anything. You cited irrelevant information from the article and falsely claimed that the poster was guilty of misrepresentation. Tax base is shrinking. A consequence of a shrinking tax base is often increased crime. It’s a fact that the entire area’s tax base is shrinking. It’s a fact that crime is up. It’s an opinion that these two facts make us “worse off” but it’s not a stretch at all. I agree with that analysis.
On the one hand this is a segregationist not a confederate hero. On the other hand the this is a rather minor figure in history. I do not see a strong argument on either side. That said, I generally support taking action to right the wrongs of the past and feel that the lesson this teaches our children about justice justifies the cost. Lets get this done.
If you take the far left view at face value, I would agree. But I fear any “win” in the far left column is generally a loss for quality of life and value of life. I’d cite other major metropolitan areas post 2020 as evidence, and would not conflate covid with macrosocial deficits as a result.
Yes, I just created the term macrosocial, and hope to see macrosocial justice on yard signs soon.
Mark H. makes SO much sense!
I am a 1965 graduate of Woodson HS. Throught the 1960’s intrgration came to Fairfax county schools and the process can best be described as seamless. This cannot be said for other counties in VA and for other states in the country. As superintendent for over 30 years Mr Woodson oversaw the school system as it grew from a largely rural collection of schools to the largest and among the best in the state and is currently considered among the best in the country. My grandfather was associated with the KKK in southwest GA in the early 20th century. As a realtively young man he became aware of the negative aspects and flaws of the klan and resigned , quit, or did whatever else was required to distance himself from that orginization. He died in 1959 and to this day he, and his family are held in high esteem in the county. A road has been named after him. Rational people will remember and honor those who preceded us based on a totality of their lifetime achievements. Just about all of us have had certain idealogies, done certain things, etc. at different times of our lives that we saw fit to change and did so.
Couldn’t agree more. Morality has and will always continue to evolve. What’s “moral” today will be immoral 50 years from now.
We should stop destroying the legacies of good hearted dead pioneers who made their communities (in this case, Fairfax County!) a much better place.
It’s about time. Segregationist names shouldn’t grace our institutions of learning. The kids at Woodson are clamoring for it. They deserve better than W.T.
Now that tax dollars will be spent on new signage and other supplies/services needed to implement this name change, perhaps the school board can next focus their energies on Woodson’s average standardized test scores which have been dropping lately.
#Priorities
As the parent of a student at Woodson, I must disagree with the statement that “the kids at Woodson are clamoring for” the name change. Somehow my son knew nothing about the proposal- I do not believe the students were polled, and I know parents weren’t informed by Woodson prior to the FCPS notification I received. The whole process seemed pro forma and the name change predetermined, just as happened with JEB Stuart. No matter what the majority wanted, the school board had already decided to change the name. There was no public outcry demanding the school name be changed. The funds that will be spent on the name change would be far better spent on teaching our children, who lost 2 years of learning when the county kept the schools closed.