Renaming schools to sever symbolic connections to past leaders who are now deemed out of touch or even evil is an issue stomping through our cities. Portland, where stomping is something of pastime, is going at it with both Birkenstock-shod feet. In recent years, the school district has been remaking older schools into 21st century learning arenas—and taking the opportunity to recast the schools into new identities that better reflect community values and move away from honoring random founding fathers who were slave owners.
I graduated from Portland’s James Madison High School in 1977. Being a somewhat active alum, I am part of two Facebook pages one of which has been following the reconstructing of the school which first opened in 1957. Tearing down some brick walls within which some of us may have ogled this or that crush is an emotional tsunami for many. But the renaming issue has flooded the area with tides of anger.
But why? It is not like we need to go change our diploma or alter our Madison memories. If the people of today want to honor someone else, why should we be concerned. It was random for Madison to be honored by this pile of brick on the edge of Portland in 1957. I am sure that at the time there were advocates for various historic people. In 1959, Woodrow Wilson had a high school named after him in Portland. Then came John Marshall in 1960, Andrew Jackson in 1968 and John Adams after that.
We already had a Washington, a Jefferson, a Monroe, a Franklin, a Lincoln, a Grant, a Cleveland and a Roosevelt (Teddy). None of these guys had more than a tenuous connection to this place. Grant had been stationed nearby in the 1850s. Jefferson ordered Lewis & Clark west. TR helped create various national forests nearby. But that is about it. In the very least, we had governors and senators we could have honored, to say nothing of other local leaders. But the fashion was to name high schools for various founding fathers, name streets and parks after them as well. That and trees. Not very imaginative, but safe.
Politics were always at work. If you are going to name a school (or a street) picking a local person was almost always going to invite debate. What could be safer than a dead president? Who would ever question the rightness of naming something after Benj. Franklin or some other long gone luminary?
So it was, Naming in Portland should always be taken with a grain of salt. Afterall, the burg itself got its name based on a coin flip.
But here we are in 2021 with much gnashing of teeth that the Madison name is being cancelled. First thing, it ain’t being cancelled. Our lettermen sweaters have the same deep meaning they always had as do our Pee Chee’s. As editor of The Constitution, our school’s newspaper, I have old issues from 1975 to 1977. I don’t need to drop them down the memory hole. Maybe our stuff will be more valuable on Antiques Roadshow since new promotional items are no longer being made.
The names being tossed around include an African-American principal I recall and a pioneering judge who was a person of color. Then there are some Native American names that reflect what the place meant to the original people. To me, these are all worthy choices that a new generation can choose, maybe as randomly our parents chose Madison in 1957.
At least whoever is honored will have some connection to the place and the community. James Madison could not have found the place with a map, even one recently drawn up by William Clark, fellow planter, whom Madison appointed governor of Missouri.
Weirdly, I find this very different than Confederate statues in the south. As painful as it is for people of color to see the enslavers of their ancestors honored in bronze, at least it a reflection of actual history there. I don’t think we need portraits of Hitler everywhere, but we should never reach a point where people don’t know who he was. The same should be true of Jefferson Davis and Donald Trump. Still, local governments can choose who they honor and if things change so that a person is no longer held in honor by the community, or maybe should never have been so honored in the first place, then so be it. Andrew Jackson is gone, make way for Harriet Tubman or Rachel Maddow or Eugene Goodman.
But here in Portland where statues and names of historic figures usually have no local connection, it was always random in the first place. I miss the statue of George Washington that used to stand on the corner in my old neighborhood before it was pulled down during the protests calling for racial equity in 2020. Because I grew up with it. But I also miss the Dairy Queen down the hill from it (now a great teriyaki chicken place) and the barber shop within sight of the statue where I got my hair cut with my dad. But the barber shop has not been cancelled, just torn down. The Dairy Queen has just evolved into an Asian chicken place, Maybe its next incarnation with involve perogies.
Yet I have an understanding of what that statue meant to people of color. Within sight of the statue in the 1950s was a big restaurant called the Coon Chicken Inn. You would enter through the mouth of a clownish Negro caricature. Pictures of this infamous place have for decades been held up as an example of obvious racism. Rightly so and with George Washington looking stoically on, the Father of Our Country gave his nodding approval.
The Coon Chicken Inn went out of business in the late 50s and the place rebranded as a steak house called the Prime Rib. It was too expensive for us although we went a few times when relatives came to town. In the early 2000s, an African American entrepreneur took it over and kept the classic menu. He made it into a retro steakhouse with pictures of Sammy Davis, Jr. and the Rat Pack. There was great live music that tended toward R&B. He knew about the place’s history and took subtle joy in the irony. Eventually he sold it as well so he could retire.
We did not need to tear the place down in order to move forward. We got rid of what was hurtful and insulting and carried on, keeping what worked (horseradish salad dressing) and adding new wrinkles (R&B and better wine).
We can put the George Washington statue back up with a plaque giving more historical context about the man. Or replace him with a Native American Chief. We can replace the master of the Montpelier Plantation in 18th century Virginia with Leodis McDaniel, the great-great grandson of slaves who spent years inspiring Portland youth of all colors.
The important thing is that future generations learn our nation’s entire history and see it reflected in the public buildings and squares. Prime rib, teriyaki chicken and possibly perogies just add to the mix.
Wonderfullest Things 