Los Angeles school removes name of eugenics backer

The Los Angeles school Board has renamed David Starr Jordan High School to simply Jordan High School to remove its association with its namesake promoter of eugenics but retain an identity defined by students who include famous athletes and jazz musicians.

The vote this week followed a push by school and community leaders who told the Board the school’s legacy has been formed by the success of its alumni, the Los Angeles Times reported.

David Starr Jordan was the founding president of Stanford University and an advocate of the racist eugenics movement. Stanford’s president and trustees this week approved removal of his name from campus spaces, among other measures.

The high school opened in LA’s Watts area in 1923 and by the 1940s its student body was largely Black. It is now 82% Latino and 17% Black.

Its alumni included Olympians Hayes Sanders, Kevin Young and Florence Griffith Joyner, musicians Charles Mingus Jr., Chico Hamilton and Buddy Collette, and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Glenn Seaborg.

“Generations of community members have proudly graced our halls,” said Principal Lucía Cerda, who told the Board of Education that the name Jordan meant something to those who wanted to support “the Jordan they know and love.”

Alumni had discussed a name change for several years.

But until recently, “nobody ever really mentioned David Starr. It was always just Jordan High School,” said Michael Cummings, a 1981 graduate who is now pastor of We Care Outreach Ministry.