A Near West Side elementary school will remove Andrew Jackson, the former U.S. president who enslaved hundreds of people and advocated for “Indian removal,” as its namesake, making it the first of 30 Chicago Public Schools buildings named after a slaveholder to do so.
Andrew Jackson Language Academy, an elementary school that serves about 500 students, will be renamed as Chicago World Language Academy, according to a school board meeting agenda released Monday.
AJLA’s Local School Council held eight meetings between August and April to hear input and discuss a potential change, ultimately voting 12-0 in favor of renaming the school. The Board of Education plans to finalize the change at its monthly meeting Wednesday.
The school was one of 30 in the district to be named after slaveholders, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of the name of every CPS school. Dozens more are named after other racists, and CPS officials have vowed changes after they were surprised to learn of the Sun-Times’ findings.
Jackson was a U.S. Army general and later president from 1829-1837 known for his anti-Native American policies, including the displacement of tribes so white settlers could take their land for cotton plantations where Black people would be enslaved. At the time of his death, Jackson himself enslaved about 150 people.
Jackson for years has also been slated for removal from the $20 bill to be replaced by abolitionist and civil rights activist Harriet Tubman.
Agassiz Elementary School in Lake View — named after a Swiss American biologist who promoted racist ideologies — was renamed in March for Tubman after years of protest from families at the school.
The namesake of the school had been Louis Agassiz, a believer in eugenics, the idea that some characteristics and races are inferior to others and should be bred out of humanity. The school’s new name is Harriet Tubman IB World School. It was the first to change its name in the district-wide review.
