DALLAS — A Dallas Independent School District middle school is being renamed in honor of longtime state Sen. Royce West, but not everyone is happy with the decision.
An official renaming ceremony for the Royce West Leadership Academy, located on Sebring Drive in southeast Dallas and known formerly as Kennedy Curry Middle School, is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.
At 9 a.m., a group is planning to protest the name change.
The group leaders say they're not upset with the district honoring West, who has served in the Texas Senate since the 1992. They're just not happy with how the district is dropping the Kennedy Curry name, which honors President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas, and Dr. Milton K. Curry, the former president of Bishop College, a historically Black college in Dallas.
Bishop College closed in 1988, but the campus buildings later became occupied by the current Paul Quinn College.
Clara McDade, who is part of the group protesting the name change, said the community was not made aware of the potential name change soon enough.
"It was done in such a rush," McDade said. "We are very displeased with the process, with the way they did this without communicating with the community."
School name changes have to be approved by the Dallas school board, and the board voted to change the name of Kennedy Curry in December. It wasn't clear how long the name change had been discussed before it was put to a vote. Tuesday's ceremony is a standard recognition of a school renaming, according to district officials.
McDade also questioned why the Kennedy and Curry names have to be dropped in the process.
McDade called Curry "very instrumental" in the Dallas community where the school is located. As president of Bishop College, Curry was active in the high schools to make sure students graduated and had an opportunity to enroll in college, McDade said.
Also, Bishop College provided jobs in the community and various youth programs, McDade said.
Kennedy's history in Dallas is more widely known, but as McDade noted, Kennedy Curry was the only Dallas school bearing the former president's name. The former John F. Kennedy Learning Center elementary school was converted in 2018 to Solar Preparatory School for Boys at John F. Kennedy Learning Center.
"We couldn't understand why you would want to move the history," McDade said. "We want to continue to teach our children this history, because it's important to us. It's important to the City of Dallas."
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