Black Astronaut's Name Stripped from New Orleans School

KIPP Action Fuels Outrage in African-American Community

NEW ORLEANS -- In an ironic twist, KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program which boasts of its national reputation of putting underserved students on the path to college has removed the name of a New Orleans public school re-named in honor of Dr. Ronald E. McNair who was killed in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

The Ronald McNair School was so named following a bitter battle launched in the late-eighties by community activist Carl Galmon to remove the names of former slave owners for public schools. Previously the school was called the Robert E. Lee School for the Confederate general in the Civil War.

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In a letter to Paul Pastorek, Superintendent of Louisiana Department of Education and Paul Vallas, Superintendent Recovery School District, Louisiana Justice Institute cultural advisor Dr. Louis Washington writes, "I was alarmed and dismayed recently upon learning (thank you Dr. Lance Hill) and then witnessing the removal of Dr. Ronald McNair's name from the former Robert E. Lee School in New Orleans.

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Tracie L. Washington, President & CEO of the Louisiana Justice Institute has informed Pastoreck that "LJI will take the position that no school should be renamed without community approval, and all those schools renamed to reflect the great African-American history of this nation and this community should not change. To the extent the KIPP organization believes it must brand everything with those four letters -- meaningless in any historical significance to this New Orleans community -- those letters must succeed the likes of Dr. Ronald McNair."

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