FORT SMITH, Ark. — Following a unanimous vote by the Fort Smith School Board to change the name of Albert Pike Elementary School, the Fort Smith Board of Directors will on Sept. 8 begin to look at the process and possibility of renaming Albert Pike Avenue.
During Tuesday’s (Aug. 25) Fort Smith Board study session, City Director André Good asked that the board begin looking at the process, impact and other factors involved in renaming Albert Pike Avenue. City Director Lavon Morton seconded the request, with the item placed on the Sept. 8 study session agenda.
The controversial effort within the Fort Smith Public Schools to rename the school building began earlier this year when the district’s Vision 2023 Equity and Minority Recruitment team recommended a renaming because of Pike’s white supremacist beliefs.
Albert Pike settled in Fort Smith in 1833 and taught school while he studied law. He opened a law practice in 1834. He later served as a general in the Confederate Army. Pike joined a petition in 1858 to “expel all free blacks from the State of Arkansas” and wrote in 1868, “We mean that the white race, and that race alone, shall govern this country. It is the only one that is fit to govern, and it is the only one that shall.”
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