Panel Recommends Renaming School, Honoring Ida B. Wells

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A traveler walks across the lobby of Washington's Union Station, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020, where a 1,000-square foot mosaic of Ida B. Wells is displayed greeting visitors and traveler with the artwork, installed in honor of the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote.

Credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

A committee is recommending that an Atlanta school now named for a newspaper editor who advocated for white supremacy after the Civil War be renamed for a Mississippi-born Black journalist.

An Atlanta school board panel recommended Tuesday that Henry W. Grady High School be renamed in honor of Ida B. Wells. Born during the Civil War in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Wells became a journalist and activist whose work exposed racism and lynching. She died in 1931. Grady is credited with helping in Atlanta's rebirth after the war but also advocated for white supremacy.

The full board will vote on a change next month.