John Matthews
WMAL.com

ROCKVILLE — Montgomery County’s newest elementary school has received its name – in honor of civil rights champion Bayard Rustin.

Rustin, who worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King during the civil rights movement, was a leading organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. He was also openly gay, and that facet of his life creates a new first for a Montgomery County school. Sally Ride Elementary in Germantown is named after America’s first woman in space, who was a lesbian, but that detail was not revealed until after her death.

In choosing to name the school after Rustin, the Montgomery County Board of Education ignored the recommendation of a naming committee formed in the school’s community. That panel’s choice was Lillian Brown, an African-American Rockville native and school teacher who had been prohibited from attending junior and high school in the county because of segregation. In a ranked list of recommendations by the committee, Rustin’s name was ranked fourth in a list of five names. .

The Board of Education was moved to choose Rustin’s name following a campaign mounted by local activists in recent weeks, who argued the community could benefit from having more gay role models.

“Whether it’s late elementary school or early middle school, this is when students are looking around and wondering if the way they are feeling is normal,” said Student Board Member Matthew Post. “To put someone like Bayard Rustin on a pedestal to show that we honor these people – I think that that significance cannot be understated.”

LISTEN TO STUDENT SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER MATTHEW POST ENDORSE NAMING THE SCHOOL AFTER BAYARD RUSTIN: 

Several other board members expressed similar sentiments, and as such, Lillian Brown’s name was never formally considered. The board approved the name Bayard Rustin on a 6 – 2 vote, with Board President Michael Durso and member Jeanette Dixon voting against the name.

Dixon emplasized that she had no problem with the Rustin name itself, but she felt strongly the Board of Education should have followed the community’s choice, which was clearly Lillian Brown.

“I do feel very strongly about it, and one of the reasons I ran for the Board of Education was that I felt we should get input from the community, ” said Dixon. “And I’m prepared to vote for what the community wants.”:

The new school on Edmondston Drive in Rockville opens in September.

Copyright 2018 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Montgomery County Public Schools)