School name will be removed

Anne Arundel school board votes to rename school, citing namesake’s racism

The Anne Arundel County school board voted unanimously last week to remove the name of a racist former superintendent from a Pasadena Elementary school.

When George Fox was county school superintendent in the 1930s, the NAACP and Walter Mills, a Black principal, sued the system over unequal pay for Black teachers and administrators.

In testimony responding to the lawsuit, Fox said his “best Black teacher wasn’t as good as his worst white teacher,” the George Fox Middle School renaming evaluation committee found.

Fox was the county’s first superintendent of schools. His primary legacy was fighting against equal pay for Black teachers, the committee concluded. Fox’s own statements on the record were proof, said Anthony Spencer, a former vice president of the Board of Education and chair of the committee.

The renaming committee heard from former George Fox Middle School students who recalled racist and inequitable treatment, Spencer said.

The board voted unanimously last summer to create the committee. The committee’s recommendation to rename the school was presented to the board Wednesday.

“The priorities that he had as he led the school system directly contributed to generations of segregationist policies and practices that continue to have an impact today as we work together to address the opportunity gap that exists,” the committee wrote in its report.

Russell Leone, president of the Teacher’s Association of Anne Arundel County, told the board it was important to rename the school to demonstrate respect for students, especially students of color. He said he thinks about students wearing school spirit clothing with Fox’s name on it.

The committee wrote that Fox supported building schools for white students but relied on the Rosenwald program, a national charitable effort, to privately fund one- or two-room schools for Black students.

“These efforts laid the foundation for decades of segregation that forced many Black students and families, in the years prior to district transportation, to choose to find ways to attend the couple of all Black schools that took hours to travel to or to give up on education,” the committee wrote.

Historian Janice Hayes Williams said her mother worked with Fox, who told her she wasn’t supposed to be smart because she was Black. Hayes Williams suggested engaging retired teachers as the system renames the school. There are some still alive who taught each other how to navigate around Fox’s racist actions, she said.

“No one has ever said, ‘I’m sorry for what George Fox put you through,’ ” Hayes Williams said.

The middle school won’t get a new name immediately. Policy for renaming a school requires the board to wait until parents can meet, then propose names and vote on them.