Alameda school board officials may soon decide whether Henry H. Haight Elementary School should be renamed “Love” Elementary School.
On Dec. 5, 1867, California Gov. Henry Huntly Haight used his inaugural speech to rail against immigration from Asia and against citizenship and voting rights of formerly enslaved Africans and Asians. One hundred fifty years later, on Dec. 5, 2017, parents of the Haight Elementary School PTA learned about Haight’s words and actions and began the process to rename Haight. Following a petition by students and parents, the Haight Renaming Committee developed name criteria, solicited name suggestions and held two student-centered elections.
Despite Gov. Haight’s documented racist worldview, there is still resistance to renaming Haight. Most of the arguments resemble those present in Confederate monument debates elsewhere. Some have an emotional attachment to the name despite knowing little about the namesake; others have suggested renaming Haight is contemporary politically correctness and would be “erasing history,” while others claim that renaming Haight would be too costly.
In reality, as a recent report in the Smithsonian found, monuments like these obscure history and memorialize white supremacy; opposition at the time these monuments were erected was ignored; and taxpayer money continues to maintain these monuments to racists.
The renaming has revealed some underlying issues Alameda must address in order to promote belonging and inclusion in our schools. Gov. Haight had a school honoring him for more than a century, and it seems few knew of his white supremacist views long erased from public memory. To ensure future generations learn from that history, and this moment, we must incorporate this knowledge into the school curriculum.
In addition to incorporating lessons on Reconstruction-era California at the appropriate elementary school levels using the history-social science framework, adopting ethnic studies as a graduation requirement for our schools will ensure the histories of those targeted by Haight are no longer ignored or erased.
Secondly, our families and teachers need tools to empower them to lead conversations about the impacts of racism. While schools like Haight have very diverse populations, we cannot rely on diversity by default. With a racially just curriculum and professional training, our schools can be intentionally inclusive. Our powerful children are much more capable of understanding than many of us think.
Love is one of the greatest values and concepts we can use in guiding the education of our children. In his final book, “Where do we go from here?” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” In defiance of Gov. Haight’s beliefs, all of our children deserve love, regardless of their race, religion, or immigration status.
The same children Haight wished to disenfranchise have demonstrated that through the power of their votes. Seventy percent of the school community — including students, parents, staff, alumni and neighbors — voted to rename Haight “Love.” With a love for justice, Alameda children stood united against Gov. Haight and used their power to correct the injustice of naming public spaces after white supremacists.
Still, it will be necessary for the school community to define love. “Love Elementary School” can lead with love and put the espoused theory of “Everyone Belongs Here” into action. In the process of developing its meaning of love — for education, their neighbors and our world — I encourage the “Love Elementary School” community to center racial justice in that meaning of love. Dr. King said, “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” By centering racial justice with our love for our children, love will conquer Haight.
Rasheed Shabazz is an Alameda resident, historian, writer and member of the Haight Renaming Committee.