Anchorage School Board votes to name East Anchorage High School after the late Sen. Bettye Davis

East Anchorage High School will soon bear a new name: Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School.

The Anchorage School Board voted unanimously on Tuesday night to change the name of the 1,700-plus-student high school in honor of the late Sen. Bettye Davis (D). She was the first Black woman elected to the Alaska House of Representatives and the Senate, and was elected to three terms on Anchorage’s school board. She died in 2018.

The unanimous vote followed a lengthy process to rename an Anchorage school after Davis. The Alaska Black Caucus spearheaded a movement to rename East High, but it was met with resistance from some in the school’s community.

The school board in its motion to rename the school specified in an amendment that the name East Anchorage High School will continue to be used for sports and activities, and that the Thunderbird mascot remains the same.

Read more: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/education/2020/10/21/anchorage-school-board-votes-to-name-east-anchorage-high-school-after-state-sen-bettye-davis/
(Anchorage Daily News)