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Last November, the school’s principal, Rita Exposito, said students and school staff have voted on a name change. A formal proposal will be presented to the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) Board of Education for approval.
Former Board of Education member Scott Phelps, who represented District 7, said the school community’s desire is to rename the school from the “Jackson STEM Dual Language Magnet Academy” to “Mary W. Jackson STEM Dual Language Magnet Academy.”
Phelps discussed the effort in an article he wrote for a local newspaper. The article quoted Principal Exposito as saying the entire school community has “thoughtfully and actively engaged in much research and many conversations” to find an appropriate name for the school.
“We were unhappy with the legacy of Andrew Jackson and considered names that would represent our values as a community,” Exposito said. “We wanted to involve our students in the decision and have them vote, along with our entire staff, on the name that they most wanted for our school. Through this process, we taught our students how democracy works, including the importance of each individual voice.”
In a petition on Change.org, filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist Nick Morr, an Altadena resident, said PUSD officials have already made an effort to remove “Andrew” from the school’s name, now referring to the school formally as “Jackson STEM Dual Language Magnet Academy.”
The school was named after Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States. Morr pointed out that a sign over the front entrance that still reads “ANDREW JACKSON.”
Exposito said the school has sent reading materials to Jackson Elementary School parents so the discussions would take place among families.
“The learning experience was meaningful and authentic, and we consciously made the decision to empower our students and community,” Exposito added. “I hope this news brings hope and joy to our community and to each of you as we look forward to an increasingly inclusive, tolerant, and united society in the future.”
The effort to name schools after NASA’s Mary Jackson is inspired by NASA itself renaming its national headquarters in Washington DC after her in early 2021.
In a virtual ceremony on February 26, 2021, then acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said the renaming will ensure NASA’s first African American woman engineer “is a hidden figure no longer.”
“Jackson’s story is one of incredible determination,” Jurczyk said. “She personified NASA’s spirit of persevering against all odds, providing inspiration and advancing science and exploration. There is no denying that she faced innumerable challenges in her work, work that would eventually help send the first Americans to space.”
This renaming effort in Altadena follows a national trend where schools are moving away from their names honoring the seventh president, Andrew Jackson, who owned slaves.
Among them Jackson Elementary in Salt Lake City, and Jackson Elementary School in Des Moines, Iowa, both schools choosing to honor Mary Jackson instead.
“The Des Moines School Board voted unanimously to change the name during its Tuesday meeting. Students launched the name change campaign about two years ago while researching a class assignment about whether the school should change its name. During a school board meeting last month, Jackson students cited the seventh president of the United States’ owning enslaved people and mistreating Native Americans as just two of several reasons they were advocating for a name change.
The children argued Mary Jackson, NASA’s first Black female engineer, was a better fit in part because the school’s name should reflect its diverse student body,” reported the Des Moines Register in May 2022.
“Jackson Elementary in Salt Lake City is being renamed in honor of another Jackson: Mary W. Jackson, the first black woman to work as a NASA engineer, whose story is depicted in the book and movie “Hidden Figures.”
The Salt Lake City school board’s decision this week comes as scrutiny of memorials for historical figures tied to racism is increasing — and particularly for Jackson, criticized for campaigns against American Indians but repeatedly praised by President Donald Trump,” reported the Salt Lake Tribune three years ago.
In South Philadelphia, Andrew Jackson School at 12th and Federal streets will be renamed after Fanny Jackson Coppin, who was born into slavery in Washington DC and went on to become a teacher in Philadelphia.
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