Crispus Attucks, Colored Hero, Name Wished for High School

Mar 27
1 min read

From The Indianapolis News, Saturday, March 27, 1926: “Crispus Attucks” will be the name of the new colored high school on recommendation of the instruction committee of the Indianapolis school board instead of “Thomas Jefferson,” as it was named by the former school board. Soon after the new school commissioners took office in January, a large number of requests were received from colored patrons with the suggestion that the new high school be named after a colored man of fame. The name of Crispus Attucks, who was killed by British soldiers in the March 5, 1770, Boston Massacre, was suggested along with that of Ohio poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, the colored James Whitcomb Riley. The selection was left to the Colored Parent-Teacher Association to decide, and they recommended “Crispus Attucks” was the most favored by the colored people of Indianapolis.