Black Astronaut's Name Stripped from New Orleans School

[flashl]

KIPP Action Fuels Outrage in African-American Community

NEW ORLEANS -- In an ironic twist, KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program which boasts of its national reputation of putting underserved students on the path to college has removed the name of a New Orleans public school re-named in honor of Dr. Ronald E. McNair who was killed in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

The Ronald McNair School was so named following a bitter battle launched in the late-eighties by community activist Carl Galmon to remove the names of former slave owners for public schools. Previously the school was called the Robert E. Lee School for the Confederate general in the Civil War.

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In a letter to Paul Pastorek, Superintendent of Louisiana Department of Education and Paul Vallas, Superintendent Recovery School District, Louisiana Justice Institute cultural advisor Dr. Louis Washington writes, "I was alarmed and dismayed recently upon learning (thank you Dr. Lance Hill) and then witnessing the removal of Dr. Ronald McNair's name from the former Robert E. Lee School in New Orleans.

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Tracie L. Washington, President & CEO of the Louisiana Justice Institute has informed Pastoreck that "LJI will take the position that no school should be renamed without community approval, and all those schools renamed to reflect the great African-American history of this nation and this community should not change. To the extent the KIPP organization believes it must brand everything with those four letters -- meaningless in any historical significance to this New Orleans community -- those letters must succeed the likes of Dr. Ronald McNair."

New Media

[IntravenousDemilo]

1. Did you notice the comment at the bottom from Pastorek?

"I noticed your story which is based on inaccurate information. The name of the school has not been removed by the act or intent of KIPP or anyone else. The signage was damaged by a tornado and we have not been able to repair it. A temporary sign was placed indicating the operator name and some concluded erroneously that there was an intentional effort to rename the school. New signage will soon be installed and the damaged school will be rededicated to the name of the famed astronaut, Ron McNair.

Paul Pastorek"

[flashl]

2. No, I did not. I read the article but not comments ...

Thanks for the info.

[IntravenousDemilo]

4. My pleasure. n/m

[shireen]

3. much ado about nothing

At first reading, there was something about the story that didn't seem right. Ron McNair was a hero and inspiration to us all (who were old enough to remember Challenger!), and that someone would remove his name from the school sounded odd. The writer really should have dug into this a bit more before flying off the handle.