Movement Started to Remove Carson’s Name From School

The Detroit school board voted 6-1 to rename a public high school named in honor of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson.

 

Detroit’s Dr. Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine is one of four buildings being recommended for renaming. Community meetings will take place to determine potential new names, or even if the names should remain. School board member Lamar Lemmons is leading the effort to wipe Carson’s name from the school.

 

“It is synonymous with having Trump’s name on our school in blackface,” Lemmons said in an interview with the Washington Post, adding that Carson “is doing Trump’s bidding, and he has adversely affected the African-American community in Detroit, as well as the nation, with his housing policies. And he’s allied himself with a President that says he is a White nationalist and sends dog whistles that even the deaf can hear.”

 

Lemmons added that naming the school for Carson occurred when Detroit’s municipal operations were being overseen by an emergency financial manager following the 2013 bankruptcy and was not approved through the traditional channel required for renaming schools. He added that received letters from community members seeking a new name for the Carson school.

 

Carson’s office did not offer any public comment on the story.

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