Every week we put our faith into action at All Saints Church — and this week we are inviting support for a Petition to the Pasadena Unified School District to rename Jackson Elementary School in Altadena from Andrew Jackson Elementary to Mary W. Jackson Elementary.

Jackson Elementary was named for President Andrew Jackson who was a plantation owner reputed to have owned as many as 300 slaves and who, as president, advocated and enforced the removal of Native American tribes from the South to what is now Oklahoma. This became the national disgrace known as “The Trail of Tears”.

Andrew Jackson Elementary School sits on what was once Hahamog’na land in Altadena, California and a town that is one-fourth African-American. Andrew Jackson does not represent the current values or culture of our town and its people nor that of the emerging multi-cultural democracy of the United States. The Pasadena Unified School District has already made an effort to remove “Andrew” from the school’s name, now referring to the school as “Jackson STEM Dual Language Magnet Academy.” Yet, the glaring sign that reads “ANDREW JACKSON” still hangs over the front entrance.

NASA has announced that it would name its headquarters in DC for Mary W. Jackson, the first Black woman to work there. She was instrumental in helping NASA send American astronauts into space. Were the school renamed for her, it could still be referred to it as “Jackson”. It’s also especially appropriate because NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is within walking distance. JPL is a huge employer in our area and many of their employees send their children to learn at this STEM specialized school. Naming it in honor of a tenacious, free, and trailblazing Black woman would also be a powerful rebuttal to the life of a man who believed she did not have the right to freedom, wages, or autonomy.

In conclusion; this petition requests that the school officially change its name to Mary W. Jackson STEM Dual Language Magnet Academy, remove the hanging embossed letters that read “Andrew Jackson”, and replace them with letters faithful to the original classical design that read “Mary W. Jackson”.

Click here to sign the petition.