Minneapolis goes with Camden High School, sheds slaveholder's name

Patrick Henry High School will go by a new name starting next school year.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Minneapolis school board voted to rename the building Camden High School after its North Side neighborhood.

The district will begin the process of choosing a new mascot and school colors before the change goes into effect next fall.

The effort to rename the school goes back several years to when a group of students and staff in 2017 objected to the association with Patrick Henry — an 18th-century Virginia politician who owned slaves. The effort was tabled in 2018 when a group of alumni pushed back on shedding the moniker.

Last year, the Minneapolis school board unanimously directed the school community to restart the name change process. The public submitted more than 300 potential new names, and nearly 1,000 people voted in the first round to narrow down the choices.

Eventually, the renaming committee narrowed them down to two — Camden and Victory. They had considered several criteria, deciding that the building shouldn't be named after someone who is alive and that the name should reflect a connection to the community.

When presented with the two choices, Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox chose Camden.

"You pushed us to follow through on this value," Board Chair Sharon El-Amin said to the students who advocated for the change.

Sheridan and Jefferson elementary schools were also renamed this year. Sheridan is now Las Estrellas and Jefferson is now Ella Baker. The process to change those names began in 2020.