Brookline School Committee Takes on Renaming of Local School

The Edward Devotion School may be getting a new name. The public school bares the name of an old slaveholder, and the community wants a new name that’s consistent with 21st Century values.

Edward Devotion was a prominent Brookline figure who donated property to the Town in 1744 that was later used to build the Devotion School. But he was also someone who owned slaves.

Community members say holding a slaveholder as a beacon of virtue for young people sends the wrong message to our youth, people of color, allies and the broader Brookline Community. While over the years there were multiple attempts to get the School Committee’s attention on this, one person pushed an open letter to the Brookline community pressing that the school’s name be changed.

“I live in the Coolidge Corner area and I’ve walked passed the Devotion school many times… when I saw that the name was a slaveholders name it was a gut punch,” said Deborah Brown in the school committee meeting.

Brown is a local resident, special assistant to EPA New England’s director of Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and active lead petitioner for Brookline’s first school name change. At the meeting, Brown went through a three-part presentation that showed the dialogues that many were having in response to the name change.

“It cuts deep when you go before a committee and they say things like ‘why are we talking about slavery’ ‘slavery was legal then’ and ‘how will people find the school if we change the name,” Brown said to the School Committee panel.

Brown later spoke on the work that has to be done around race in the community and the work that needs to be done around Edward Devotion. Residents who are with Brown’s cause said they want: a safe place for their children to go with honor and dignity, an institution that doesn’t sanction racism, and the presumption that a child can walk into a class with equality no matter their race, color, gender, or ability.

And while no specific name has been set for the school, Brookline community members just want the name to be something deserving. Dates have been arranged for more meetings in the discussion of the name as the seriousness of the situation builds.

Photo courtesy of : Public Schools of Brookline

Arianna Gooden is a Communications major at Newbury College.