Lancaster County Schools Named After Slave-Owners To Be Renamed In Honor Black-Female Teachers

The school board voted on the new names at a board meeting on Thursday night. 

Edward Hand Middle School, which was temporarily called Southeast Middle School since mid-2020, will be renamed- Hazel I. Jackson Middle School.

Jackson was an English teacher at the formerly named-- Edward Hand Middle School from 1961 to 1970. She was the first female Black teacher in the school district and at Millersville University.

The board also voted to rename Buchanan Elementary School-- Rita Smith-Wade-El Elementary School.

Smith-Wade-El was an advocate for social justice in the Lancaster community and a professor at Millersville University.

The names are based on recommendations from community members in 2020, when the board first began the search for potential new names for the schools.

The search was prompted by a community outcry against the use of slave-owner's names on schools at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

The schools new names got into effect July 1.

The District will hold a formal dedication at the beginning of the upcoming school year.

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