School Board To Vote On T.C. Williams Renaming Process

UPDATE: The board voted to start the process in consideration of renaming T.C. Williams High School.

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The Alexandria School Board will vote Friday on initiating a process to consider renaming T.C. Williams High School.

When T.C. Williams opened in 1965, it was named for Thomas Chambliss Williams, the superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools from the mid-1930s to 1963. Williams was known as a supporter of segregation and argued for keeping Black and white students in separate schools.

In the last school year, 42 percent of T.C. Williams students were Hispanic, 26.7 percent were Black, 25 percent were white, 3.9 percent were Asian, 2 percent were multiracial and less than 1 percent were American Indian or Native Hawaiian.

The school board resolution to consider the renaming request states:

It is well documented that throughout his tenure as Superintendent, Thomas Chambliss Williams exhibited racism, fought to maintain segregation in ACPS, and promoted the school division’s massive resistance to desegregation efforts. This is inconsistent with the forward-looking vision and values expressed in the Equity for All 2025 Strategic Plan. The Board condemns Thomas Chambliss Williams’ past actions to promote segregation and racism within ACPS, and agrees that this is an appropriate time to examine a name change for Alexandria’s only high school.

Per school board policy, the renaming process has to start with a petition with signatures from 100 Alexandria residents. That was accomplished by the Rename T.C. Williams Now Facebook group in June.

According to the school district, Matthew Maury Elementary, named for a Confederate commander, is not part of the renaming process. That too would require a petition submitted to the school board.

Steps of the renaming process will be announced to the public after Aug. 27, followed by a public feedback period from fall 2020 to spring 2021. Hutchings will present recommendations to the School Board in the spring of 2021. The decision to keep the Titans mascot will be part of the public feedback process.

Local school renaming efforts have emerged amid conversations about racial injustice after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Fairfax County Public Schools has started the process for renaming Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield and had renamed J.E.B. Stuart High School to Justice High School in 2018. In late June, the Loudoun County School board ousted Loudoun County High School's Raiders nickname, which is associated with Confederate Col. John Mosby. Falls Church City Public Schools is starting a process regarding the names of George Mason High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary, two slave-owning Founding Fathers.

Per board policy, the Rename T.C. Williams Now group submitted a placeholder name: Tubman-Chavez High School. While this may not be the final name, it incorporates the T.C. initials often used as the school's nickname.

A petition on Change.org that received over 2,000 signatures suggested renaming the high school for Petey Jones, a member of the 1971 football team portrayed in "Remember the Titans." Jones was a senior fullback on the T.C. Williams football team when the team won the Virginia AAA state championship in 1971. Jones also worked as a school security officer for ACPS for 29 years before he died in 2019.