5/1/2021 • Texas• Houston public Montessori school renamed for Black activist Ella Baker
Posted On May 3, 2021
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5/1/2021 • Texas • Houston Independent School District’s Wilson Montessori School has been renamed for Black civil rights and human rights activist Ella Baker, as reported by Houston television station ABC13.
The school opened under the name Woodrow Wilson Elementary in 1925 and became a Montessori school in 2008. Employees of the school pushed for the name change, citing Wilson’s racism, actions, and beliefs.
Ella Baker (1903-1906) was a lifelong activist and is “viewed by some as the most influential woman in the civil rights movement”, according to a 2018 USA TODAY civil rights retrospective.
Baker’s work lives on in the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, an Oakland-based non-profit strategy and action center based working for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America.