Fairfax City Board Considers New Name For Lanier Middle School

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Community members are urging the City of Fairfax School Board to change the name of the city's middle school, which is named after Sidney Lanier, a Confederate soldier who in the decades after his death was embraced as the "poet of the Confederacy."

More than two dozen members of the public waited in a queue during a virtual public hearing Monday night to express their support for changing the name of Lanier Middle School. The public hearing was held only two weeks after the Fairfax County School Board voted to change the name of Robert E. Lee High School to John R. Lewis High School.

The City of Fairfax School Board is scheduled to hold another public hearing on Sept. 3 on a possible name change for Lanier Middle School. And then the school board is likely to vote on Sept. 14 at its regular school board meeting on whether to remove the name.

Carrie Dorsey, communications director for the City of Fairfax Schools, told Patch that "it is not a done deal" that the school board will vote to change the name of Lanier Middle School when it meets in September. The board is waiting to hear from the community before it makes its decision, Dorsey said.

Born in 1842, Lanier fought in the Civil War, primarily in the Tidewater region of Virginia. Along with his work as a poet, Lanier eventually became a professor of literature at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Starting in the 1920s, the United Daughters of the Confederacy worked to enhance Sidney Lanier’s reputation as a way to celebrate the Confederacy and oppose integration. More than 10 schools across the country are named after Lanier, including Fairfax City's middle school, which opened its doors in 1960.

"These schools were named to send a message to our students," Rachan Sizemore Heizer, an at-large member of the Fairfax County School Board, said during the public comment period at the hearing. "I think it’s vital now that we send a different message."

Two other members of the Fairfax County School Board also spoke during the public hearing to encourage their colleagues on the City of Fairfax School Board to vote for a name change.

The City of Fairfax School Board is a five-member elected board representing Fairfax City residents. Through a school services agreement, the City School Board works with Fairfax County Public Schools. The city owns the buildings and property where the city's four schools are located, while FCPS hires the teachers and staff members that work at the schools.

The naming of the city’s schools, including Lanier Middle School and Fairfax High School, is the responsibility of the City of Fairfax School Board, even though the schools are part of the Fairfax County Public School system.

In June, Fairfax High School's principal made the decision to drop the school's nickname, Rebel Pride, and change its mascot to the Lions in response to concerns about the name's link to the Confederacy. The City of Fairfax School Board, at its June board meeting, also voted to change the name of the street that leads to Fairfax High School from Rebel Run to Lion Run. The changes became effective immediately.

The Fairfax County NAACP has campaigned to get residents behind the effort to change the name of Lanier Middle School.

"Lanier Middle School was named for a Confederate soldier named Sidney Lanier," the Fairfax County NAACP wrote in an alert to get people to voice their support for a name change. "For years, students and residents have voiced their frustration over their School Board's unwillingness to rename the school, or even consider taking this action."

During Monday night's comment period, Anthony Harris, principal of Robert Frost Middle School in Fairfax County, joined others in calling for the Fairfax City school board to change the name of Lanier Middle School. He highlighted a recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that monitors hate groups, that stated "schools, parks and streets were named for Confederate icons during the era of white resistance to equality."

Even though it is located in Fairfax City, Lanier Middle School teaches children who live in both Fairfax City and Fairfax County. About 45 percent of its 1,060 students are city residents and 55 percent are county residents.

The City of Fairfax has about 3,000 total city students in public school K-12 and the total enrollment in all four of the city's schools — Fairfax High School, Lanier Middle School, Providence Elementary School and Daniels Run Elementary School — is about 5,000.

At Monday's meeting, City of Fairfax School Board Chair Carolyn Pitches said the school board will take additional public comment on the possible renaming of Lanier Middle School at another public hearing on Sept. 3. The public can also submit written comments on the issue by email to LanierComment@fairfaxva.gov.