Following Serra High controversy, other San Diego High Schools forced to reckon with racist namesakes

Statement from San Diego Unified’s Department of Doing Better: “Junipero Serra was an easy one: no religious figure has any business having their name on a public school, including the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Basic question of separation of church and state. But Samuel Gompers, famous union man and defender of the working class? Huge racist: pushed for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president and the man who freed the slaves? Huge racist: besides saying he had no intention of introducing social and political equality between the races, he ordered the largest mass execution in American history — 38 Lakota Indians, after show trials where they were denied counsel. Patrick Henry, who famously shouted, ‘Give me liberty or give me death?’ Huge racist, owned slaves all his life. James Madison, the father of the Bill of Rights? Huge racist: owned and traded slaves. It’s high time we stopped remembering men for the great things they did and started remembering them for the awful ones.”