Williamsburg-James City County Schools is exploring what it would take to rename James Blair Middle School.
For Mary Lassiter, the board’s discussion was a step in the right direction. She was a 1969 graduate of Blair when the all-white former high school finally integrated.
Blair, a Scotland-born Anglican minister who died in 1743, was an influential figure in Colonial Virginia and the co-founder of William & Mary. He also used his position to argue for the institutionalization of slavery and owned enslaved people.
“It’s a fact to say that James Blair is responsible for generations of Black children being born into slavery,” said Joe Caterine, who has advocated alongside Lassiter for a name change since 2023.
The two submitted a request to the School Board in September. The board on Tuesday discussed what could come next.
Any process, even starting this month, wouldn’t be completed before May. If the board wanted to consider a name change, administrators recommended it form a committee of current students, staff and residents of its attendance zone.
Daniel Keever, acting superintendent, said the idea was to give the community a say in the process.
“When you change the name of a school or a building or a program, there are going to be people that have feelings about that one way or another,” Keever said.
The final renaming authority rests with the board. WJCC policy does not require a specific makeup for a committee, or that the board form one at all.
Renaming the school is estimated to cost more than $92,000 to resurface the gym floor and replace signs. More than $41,000 would pay for new uniforms for the school’s eight athletic teams.
The estimates were derived from when the division considered renaming the school in 2017-2018 and could cost more than that in 2025.
Multiple board members were interested in a public committee. Vice Chair Andrea Donnor said unspent funds from the year could cover the costs of a name change. She expects Williamsburg City Council would not oppose the move.
“I would be surprised if the city had a concern about removing the name of an enslaver from the building,” Donnor said.
Board Member Randy Riffle said he would support the committee considering other WJCC school names too.
“This can be pretty time-consuming for a community to go through,” he said. “I want to use government time effectively here.”
Seeing Blair’s name emblazoned on the school to this day “infuriates” Lassiter. She recalls a large mural in the school depicting Blair standing with Indigenous people, European laborers and shirtless enslaved African men working.
“I despise the picture,” Lassiter said. “It was just a reminder that white people are in charge.”
Lassiter didn’t know much about Blair when she was a student but gained a broader understanding of his history in 2020 after reading a Virginian-Pilot article. The article motivated her and her brothers Carl and Curtis to advocate for changing the name and the name of Magruder Elementary School in York County.
Magruder is named after Confederate Gen. John Magruder, commander of the Army of the Peninsula garrisoned in Yorktown during the Civil War. It remains a goal of the Lassiters and Caterine.
WJCC policy encourages schools to be named after community attributes rather than people. It reads that an individual must be dead for at least 10 years to be a namesake.
Lassiter and Caterine, though, advocate for Blair to be renamed for Rev. James B. Tabb, pastor at Mount Ararat Baptist and Rising Sun Baptist churches.
Tabb was president of the Williamsburg NAACP during the time of school desegregation. He enrolled his daughter as the first Black student at Blair under WJCC’s freedom-of-choice plan. Similar to other districts, the plan allowed Black students to petition to attend previously all-white schools before the Supreme Court ordered immediate desegregation in 1968.
“We had a lot of racial problems and disturbances and he was one of the people that came in and tried to settle things down,” Lassiter said. “During those times, Rev. Tabb is the person that you would go to or that you could count to help with any type of racial problem.”
Tabb brought running water to the Lackey community and created Charles E. Brown Park. He was honored with a joint resolution by the General Assembly in 1996.
School Board members did not vote on forming a committee Tuesday. Board Chair Sarah Ortego said she would get input from the board and possibly set the matter for a vote as soon as Feb. 18.
A note of transparency, WJCC Schools is a member of HRETA, which owns WHRO’s broadcast license.
