T.C. Williams, Maury School Renaming Hearing To Be Held

ALEXANDRIA, VA — On Thursday, the Alexandria School Board will hold a hearing on the potential renaming of two schools.

T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School are being considered for name changes. T.C. Williams is named after Thomas Chambliss Williams, the former Alexandria superintendent from the mid-1930s until 1963 who promoted the school division's resistance to desegregation efforts. Matthew Maury Elementary, named for a Confederate commander and the "Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology" for his contributions to charting winds and ocean currents. The board is expected to vote on whether to rename the schools on Nov. 23.

To start a process of considering a name change, Alexandria School Board policy requires a petition with signatures from 100 Alexandria residents. The process for T.C. Williams started in July when a community petition was submitted in June. Matthew Maury Elementary was not originally part of the renaming process, but a community petition was submitted in August.

The school board hearing at 4 p.m. on Oct. 29 will follow seven community and student forums and a school renaming survey open through Oct. 28. The last of the community conversations will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Panelists include Chris Harris, president of the Alexandria NAACP, Sindy Benavides CEO of League of United Latin American Citizens School Board member Margaret Lorber and Ashley Sanchez-Viafara, T.C. Williams student representative to the School Board.

Three community read-ins focusing on Alexandria's history were held on Sept. 24 and Oct. 1 and 8. The themes of the discussions were T.C. Williams the Superintendent, Alexandria’s Role in Massive Resistance and School Segregation, and The Real Story Behind: Remember the Titans. Recordings can be viewed.

Alexandria City Public Schools has also included student education about school history and the school namesakes as part of the outreach process, Superintendent Gregory Hutchings Jr. said in a newsletter to families.

As reported by ACPS, T.C. Williams history teacher Ra' Alim Shabazz recently taught his students about Thomas Chambliss Williams. He's also taught students about Blois Hundley, a mother and Lyles-Crouch cafeteria worker who joined a 1958 federal civil rights lawsuit to force the school district to send her kids to an all-white school. Alexandria schools to let her children attend a whites-only school. Williams ended up firing her.

"I see Blois Hundley as the Rosa Parks of Alexandria," said Shabazz. "But here is a woman whose story has really been overlooked whereas T.C. Williams not only had a school named after him but his name has been immortalized in a movie. As long as we continue to mythologize history, we cannot address the inequities of the past."

Maury elementary fourth graders studying Virginia history will learn about the Maury the oceanographer’s accomplishments and role in the Confederate Army. They will also learn about life in Alexandria during 1929, the year when the school was named and when segregation was in practice.

Should the school board vote to change the name, there would be a community engagement process on possible new names. More information about the process and the namesakes of the school is available on the ACPS website.