Some of the first attempts to rename HISD schools named for Confederates began in 2009. However, it would not be until 2015, in the aftermath of the mass killing of Black church members in Charleston, South Carolina by a white supremacist, that Houston ISD would begin to reconsider the names of several schools in the district named after Confederates. Images of the shooter displaying a Confederate flag and the tradition of flying a Confederate flag over the South Carolina state capitol sparked a nationwide debate over the removal of Confederate names and symbols from public buildings, and by the following year, Houston ISD became one of the largest school districts in the country to vote to remove Confederate names from its schools.[1]

Houston ISD's decision to change the Confederate names prompted fierce debate, especially among alumni hoping to prevent what they viewed as the erasure of their school's history. With the name change estimated to cost $250,000 per campus, one protestor carried a sign that read, "FIX the schools, NOT the Name!" Proponents of the name change, however, noted that today the district has a majority Black and Brown student population, and that the district should not force students to attend schools named for those who fought to preserve slavery.[2]

The 2015-16 drama began nearly 90-years earlier with the construction of several new schools in the district, including what would become Jefferson Davis High School. In 1925, with school construction underway, the Houston Chronicle covered the debate over the naming of the new schools at a Houston school board meeting. The Chronicle reported that while some proposed the names of Civil War Confederates, others in the community proposed the names of former President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist and father of education Horace Mann. Naming the schools after Confederates was not the most popular choice, and as the Chronicle further reported, “Much criticism has been made to the naming of…North Side senior high for Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.” However, after agitation from pro-Confederate groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), a group that “rejected the names of Lincoln, Mann and Roosevelt” in favor of Jefferson Davis and other confederates, the board sided with the UDC, naming the schools after those they viewed as "Southern heroes.”[3]

While many still disagree with the 2016 renaming of Houston ISD schools, many of the renamed buildings returned to their school's historical roots. John Marshall Junior High School opened in 1914 and was originally named Northside Junior High because of its location in the historic Northside area of Houston. With the newly built high school across the street, Northside Junior High was renamed John Marshall and the new high school was named Jefferson Davis. Even after the 1925 board vote to name the new Northside high school after Jefferson Davis, many, including the contractors building the school, often referred to the school as North Side Senior High as well as Jefferson Davis.[4]

As contentious as the renaming of “Davis” to “Northside” remains today, in many ways, the name “Northside” harkens back to the earliest roots of the community and represents a promise to today's predominately Black and Brown student population, a promise held dear by the Northside’s earliest residents, a promise of dignity, respect and equal opportunity. Even though the old name has been erased, the history of Northside has not. Like the WWII memorial oak trees that stand nearly 80-years later in the school courtyard, the school’s history remains firmly rooted in the school’s physical architecture, in its elaborate archive, and in the memories of generations of students of Davis and Northside High. And like a mighty oak tree, this history will remain for generations to come.