Jackson School Ditches Confederate President Name In Favor Of Obama

JACKSON, MS — Davis International Baccalaureate Elementary School in Jackson, Mississippi — named decades ago after Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's only president — will be renamed after Barack Obama, America's first African-American president. The magnet school is made up of 98 percent African-American students and the change was proposed by parents.

Most students supported the move, along with parents, faculty and staff members. The PTA president, Janelle Jefferson, announced the planned change at a school board meeting Tuesday.

"The students had overwhelming support for President Obama," Jefferson told The Associated Press on Wednesday. (For more information on the Jackson school and other Jackson stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

A three-week process led to the vote. People at the school offered suggestions for new names. Students in each class, from kindergarten through fifth grade, conducted research and presented it at a school assembly. Fourth and fifth graders oversaw an election with students, teachers and staff casting paper ballots at school. Parents could vote on campus or by absentee ballot.

Watch: Mississippi School Changes Name From Jefferson Davis To Obama

"We wanted to be very inclusive and transparent in the process to be fair, to make sure everybody felt like they had a voice," Jefferson said.

The school has an admissions process based on testing, and it offers a rigorous curriculum. State rankings released Tuesday show it was the top academic performer of all elementary and middle schools in Mississippi for 2016-17.

About 96 percent of students in Jackson Public Schools are African-American.

Jed Oppenheim, a school board member, said people have been asking for years why three schools in a majority African-American district are still named for Confederate figures. In mid-September, the board authorized the PTA at each of the three schools to set new names. The change from Davis to Obama is the only one approved so far.

George Elementary is named for James Zachariah George, who signed Mississippi's secession ordinance and drafted the state constitution that denied voting rights to black citizens. Lee Elementary is named for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Jefferson said the PTA will do "some very aggressive fundraising campaigns" to pay for new signs, stationery or other items needed for the name change to Obama. The school is near the state Capitol building, and most of its students were born during the eight years Obama was president, starting in 2009.

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press

Photo credit: Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press