School names, mascots being reassessed
The irony of a Black man winning an award named after the most famous Confederate general is not lost on Jermaine Alfred.
“Mr. Robert E. Lee” as a high school senior in 1994-95, Alfred is probably better known as Baylor’s quarterback in the late 1990s. He’s part of a string of Lee Ganders helping the school subjectively earn the “Quarterback High” distinction in the 1990s and 2000s, too.
Alfred’s life isn’t defined by winning something akin to homecoming king or most popular student. It holds more precedence today, though.
“Now saying that is like a bitter taste in your mouth,” Alfred said, referring to his answer when people ask what high school he attended. “Before I was kind of proud of it. Now, most of the time I say ‘Yeah, I was a Gander.’”
This summer, Tyler ISD’s Board of Trustees changed the name of the district’s Robert E. Lee High School to Tyler Legacy and shortened John Tyler High School to Tyler High School. The schools’ former namesakes have ties to slavery.
Midland ISD’s Board of Trustees voted to change its Robert E. Lee Senior High School and Robert E. Lee Freshman High School this summer, too. New name have not been determined.
Alfred says he was “95 percent sure” his school would follow suit. Although the matter will be revisited, trustees at Goose Creek CISD voted 4-3 against changing the name of Baytown’s Robert E.
Lee High School on Thursday.
Institutions in every aspect of life are worth re-examining in a social climate where issues sensitive to Black people and minority groups are at the forefront. Some of those institutions are still easily identifiable with namesakes and mascots in Texas high school sports.
There is an entire city named after Robert E. Lee — Robert Lee, Texas is 32 miles north of San Angelo in West Texas. The Robert Lee Steers compete in the University Interscholastic League’s Class A.
Rebels — a mascot evoking Confederate imagery — is still a popular nickname for some Texas high schools such as Evadale, just 26 miles north of Beaumont. The school crest features Confederate imagery.
Social media was ablaze last week when KIII-TV sports director Chris Thomasson mentioned Robstown High School’s mascot — the Cotton Pickers — in a tweet. Residents of the majority Latino town west of Corpus Christi consider the name a source of pride, harking on the area’s roots as a haven for migrant workers who picked cotton.
B.F. Terry High School in Rosenberg is named after Benjamin Franklin Terry, who commanded the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment for the Confederate army — known as Terry’s Texas Rangers — during the American Civil War and owned slaves. The school’s mascot is the Rangers. There are multiple online petitions to change Terry High School’s name.
Houston ISD was ahead of the curve.
The state’s largest district changed the name of seven schools with Confederate ties in 2016, including John Reagan High School (now Heights), Jefferson Davis High School (Northside) and its own Robert E. Lee High School (Margaret Long Wisdom).
In 2014, it was culturally insensitive mascots for HISD. Lamar High School’s Redskins nickname and logo was changed to Texans six years before the Washington Football Team departed from the Native American mascot this summer. Westbury High’s mascot also went from Rebels to Huskies.
The debate over high schools using Native American imagery as mascots was in the spotlight again in July, when the Cherokee Nation called for Port NechesGroves ISD to stop its use of the Indians as a mascot. The district was originally endorsed to use the name and imagery in 1979.
Playing for a high school with an offensive mascot or name might not register to the teenagers wearing the uniform, perhaps an indication these names are so embedded in communities, they long go unchecked.
Former Lamar quarterback Darrell Colbert Jr. said donning an insensitive namesake on game days was easily lost when he was in school. Attention over the name increased with the team’s 2012 run to the Class 5A Division I state championship game. Seeing the Washington Football Team change its name and logo supports the idea HISD did the right thing in 2014.
“Football-wise, nobody really thought about it that way until you kind of get an understanding of what everything had meant,” Colbert Jr. said. “You kind of really just don’t understand it until you get older. I feel like it’s something that should’ve been happened a long time ago now that I have an understanding of what all that meant and what all was behind it.”
Alfred wasn’t oblivious to his school’s name when he was under center on Friday nights, either. Today, though, he considers himself more conscious and eager for it to change, especially considering the school’s student body is 16 percent Black and 72 percent Latino.
Change is happening on a much larger scale and sports is the foremost platform, Alfred said, referring to numerous professional athletes in protest of racial injustice in this country.
Houston-area high school athletes are using their platform, too. Katy High School’s cornerback duo of Bobby Taylor and Hunter Washington are sitting out the team’s first scrimmage and regular season game in protest of racial injustice and police brutality.
“We’ve had the ammunition before to try to make a change, but it wasn’t followed up well,” Alfred said. “I think now, it’s being followed up and we’re pushing to get this change.”