Uptown Magazine
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Fairfax, VA middle school that was once named for a Confederate soldier was renamed last week to honor
Katherine Johnson, a Black woman and mathematician who was integral to
NASA’s missions to put an American in space and for an American to orbit the Earth for the first time.
The school was named after Sidney Lanier, an American poet and private in the Confederate army, in the 1960s when Fairfax County named all schools after literary figures, Dr. Tammara M. Hanna, the school s principal, told ABC News. Civil rights activists have argued, especially over the past year, that naming institutions after Confederates and celebrating the Confederacy through monuments actually pays homage to America’s history of enslavement and racism. After months of public debate and hearings, the school board for the city of Fairfax voted unanimously to change the school’s name.
A Virginia middle school that was once named after a Confederate soldier has been renamed in honor of African American NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson. The former Sidney Lanier Middle School in Fairfax County held a renaming ceremony Friday. Lanier was a prominent American poet and private in the Confederate army.
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The climax of Friday s ceremony was the official ribbon-cutting in front of Fairfax City s middle school, which is now named in honor of pioneering mathematician and NASA scientist, Katherine Johnson. (Michael O Connell/Patch)
In preparation for Friday s ceremony, the City of Fairfax Schools added Katherine Johnson s name to the outside of the building and painted murals in the school s main hallway. (Michael O Connell/Patch)
A mural depicting a shuttle launch was also painted in the gym, evoking Katherine Johnson s pioneering work in mathematics for NASA. (Michael O Connell/Patch)
FAIRFAX CITY, VA History was made Friday morning in the City of Fairfax, when a group of students, administrators, educators, local officials, and honored guests cut the ribbon on the newly renamed Katherine Johnson Middle School.