PEORIA MAGAZINE February 2023

P E O R I A R E T R O

WHAT’S IN A NAME? BY SCOTT FISHEL PHOTO BY RON JOHNSON

G regor y Wi l son, former Peoria Public Schools Board president, says the names of schools should reflect the values of the students and teachers who learn and work within them. He wasn’t seeing those values when he joined the Board in 2017, Wilson said. “When I looked at some of our buildings, they still had the names of people who were slave owners or presidents that discriminated in one form or another against minority populations,” he said. At the time some of the schools were built, local Black children weren’t even allowed to walk through their front doors, he added. Wilson set about working to identify suitable name replacements. Since 2018, Peoria’s School Board has approved name changes for seven local facilities, five for noteworthy local men and women of color: • Calvin Coolidge Middle School became Harold B. Dawson Jr. Middle School in 2022. • (Wi l l i am Hen r y ) Ha r r i son Community Learning Center is now Annie Jo Gordon Community Learning Center. • (Theodore) Roosevelt Magnet School became the Elise Ford Allen Academy in 2022. • Thomas Jefferson Primary School was christened Dr. C. T. Vivian Primary School in 2021. • In 2018, Woodrow Wilson Primary became Dr. Maude A. Sanders Primary.

Two other schools, LindberghMiddle and Washington Gifted, also have new signs. Lindbergh became Liberty Leadership Middle School, while Washington, in a nod to the building’s history, has returned to Reservoir Gifted Academy. Who were these local luminaries? HAROLD B. DAWSON MIDDLE SCHOOL, 2708 W. ROHMANN AVE. Harold B. Dawson Jr. touched thousands of lives as a local spiritual leader and advocate for education in the African American community. Born in 1970 to Harold Sr. and Mattie Pearl Dawson, Dawson earned a degree inmarketing from Jackson State Univer sity before getting a master’s degree in divinity fromVirginia Union University. In 2010, he was appointed president of the Peoria Christian Leadership Council, a collaboration of ministers dedicated to addressing social , economic and political concerns in the Black community. He founded

New Life Christian Church in 2012 and was pastor of New Hope International Ministries. He served on the boards of the NAACP, Peoria Ministers Economic Development Organization, Catholic Charities, Peoria Airport Authority and other organizations. Dawson passed away in 2019 at age 48. “It is gratifying to know that other people acknowledge the impact of the work that he did,” said his oldest son, Harold Dawson III. His father “was always in the mood to learn … If you ever saw himpreach, you know that his preaching style was teaching.” ANNIE JO GORDON COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER, 2727 W. KRAUSE AVE. Annie Jo Gordon was the first African American employee of the Peoria Journal Star. Over a four-decade career, she would become affiliated with many impactful community organizations, including the Peoria Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity, YWCA, American Cancer

52 FEBRUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE