For decades, the middle schools of the town of Clifton, New Jersey have been named by two notoriously racist murderers, Christopher Columbus & Woodrow Wilson. Naming the schools by these racists only paints them in a good light, and makes them out to be heroes in a town that celebrates diversity. It’s 2020, and I think Clifton is well overdue for a change and educating their students from a young age of the horrors that some of these “leaders” that were praised. I believe that changing these names will help be the start in better educating our students in the history of our presidents and former explorers that up until high school we were taught to praise.

Christopher Columbus when reaching to the Hispaniola (not even discovering America), engaged in enslaving the native people, theft, genocide of the indigenous people, as well as spreading viruses & illnesses. This also included Columbus and the Spanish explorers with him to also rape many of the women on the islands. After some time, EVEN the Spanish government ended up imprisoning him. “They were very well built, with very handsome bodies and very good faces,” Columbus wrote in his diary. “They do not carry arms or know them....They should be good servants.”

Woodrow Wilson, our former governor, president, and active racist, was known for screening “The Birth of a Nation”, (which if you’re not aware, is a film that highlights the work of slavery, and praising the Ku Klux Klan). After throwing out a civil rights activist, William Monroe Trotter, out of the office, segregation increasingly got worse. He also viewed segregation as beneficial to black people. His entire presidency, he never viewed segregation as an issue, in fact he encouraged it. Trotter continuously tried to reason with him but it wasn’t until Wilson was exposed on The New York Times’, that he realized his error in public relations. 

Below are the emails of the BOE commissioners, if you would like to express your concern!

Lucy Danny, President | lucy.danny@cliftonschools.net
Judith A. Bassford, Vice President | judith.bassford@cliftonschools.net
Fahim K. Abedrabbo | fahim.abedrabbo@cliftonschools.net                   Dana Beltran | dana.beltran@cliftonschools.net
Joe Canova | joe.canova@cliftonschools.net
James Daley | james.daley@cliftonschools.net
Frank W. Kasper | frank.kasper@cliftonschools.net Gary Passenti | gary.passenti@cliftonschools.net
Jim Smith |  jim.smith@cliftonschools.net