How to change Lanier Middle School's name without changing it

Poet and all-purpose renaissance man Sidney Clopton Lanier will soon have his name scraped from the walls of one of Houston's oldest middle schools, the result of a decision made Thursday by the HISD board of trustees. His sin, of course, was being from the South and serving in the Confederate army. There is no evidence that Lanier opined favorably about the Confederate States of America or favored slavery. To the contrary, in fact. But no matter. For the majority minority board, he was low-hanging fruit, along with other men who actually served the Confederate cause in a more serious way and are not studied in classes on American poetry. Then again, Lanier himself is not studied much these days. His body of work is small - he died at 39 of tuberculosis contracted during the Civil War - and students who are not from his native Georgia are unlikely even to know his name. Whether he was worthy enough a literary figure to merit naming a school for him in Texas is a reasonable question, though schools are named after all sorts of people no one has heard of or cares about. That issue never arose. He was simply caught up in a symbolic political moment. Confederate icons and their statues and namesakes are falling. Interestingly, Founding Fathers who were actual slave owners and early advocates for the Southern plantation economy apparently are exempt from the revisionist impulse, and one can understand why. You won't get very far if you vilify the people who created the republic whose values you celebrate. A committee has been tasked to come up with a new name for the board to sign off on, a cumbersome process that is likely to invite lengthy debate. A geographic solution - Montrose Middle School - may be too simple to find enough support. But an even simpler one could satisfy myriad concerns. Ditch the first name, keep the last. In other words, find a different Lanier. The late Houston mayor Bob Lanier is an obvious choice. His significance in the great scheme of things is tenuous, no doubt. But at the very least he was an advocate for downtown revitalization and for central Houston in general. He believed it was crucial to keep its middle class from fleeing to the suburbs en masse, resulting in the dreaded "donut city." They didn't and it isn't. There are other Laniers, of course, and some have Houston connections. Hal Lanier was a Major League shortstop who managed the Astros for several years and led them to a division title in 1986. Mark Lanier is a nationally known plaintiff lawyer and has the advantage of being wealthy, suggesting a potential patron whose generosity would be of great benefit. Keeping Lanier as the school's last name is more than mere convenience. Changing names is an expensive proposition, and not merely for the school district, which has to erect new signs and order all manner of goods, from athletic uniforms to envelopes. School rules require students to wear official shirts with LMS embroidered on the front. PE uniforms also bear the school's last name. The only hoodies that students can bring to school are official versions that say Lanier on them. Keeping the last name means parents don't have to buy a new school wardrobe. And those items that the school sells from its official store won't end up getting tossed. The momentum to send the consumptive poet back to history's dustbin did not arise from the student body. However, there is a name change that many of the students would like to see - the nickname. Those who represent the school in athletic events or other competitions are called the Purple Pups. If it is not the worst such moniker in the history of American schools, it's on a pretty short list. What is a purple pup if not a young child's plush toy? Those who root from the sideline for their kids and fellow students rarely refer to the mascot out of embarrassment, deferring to the school's last name. If Lanier has to go, Purple Pups should go with it, they argue. The issue has not come up yet, and perhaps the school trustees are too busy to bother. But if they can be convinced that a purple pup was a beloved if fanciful creature adored by children of the Old South aristocracy, consider it done.

How to change Lanier Middle School's name without changing it

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