The class of 2026 was the first class in Jackson-Reed’s history to enter the school under its new name. In March of 2022, Woodrow Wilson High School was officially renamed to Jackson-Reed in response to community protests against former President Woodrow Wilson’s legacy of racism and discriminatory practices, specifically those that displace Black residents from Northwest DC. However, unlike Wilson, few are familiar with the legacy of the new namesakes, Edna B. Jackson and Vincent E. Reed.
When Wilson’s doors opened in 1935, it was for white students only. It was built across the street from Reno City, a Black neighborhood that was being slowly demolished by the federal government to make room for white housing and institutions like Wilson. Being named after a historical figure known for sympathizing with the Ku Klux Klan, allowing the resegregation of federal agencies, and showing the racist film The Birth of a Nation at the White House, our school had a long history of segregation. In fact, in 1972, sociology teacher Edward Cannon told the Beacon that Wilson was “founded in racism” and named after a “bigot,” emphasizing that the “odor [of racism] still exists.”
Edna B. Jackson started at then Woodrow Wilson High School with fellow Black teacher Archie Lucas in 1955, making the school Washington’s last high school to integrate its teacher workforce. As a teacher, she taught European and world history and strongly advocated for integration, specifically advocating for schools to teach more Black studies courses. Her first years were especially difficult. According to former teachers and students, white teachers refused to eat with her at lunch and would use racial slurs when she was around. She was beloved by faculty, teachers, and students alike by the time of her retirement in 1976, prompting many to advocate for her when DCPS opened up to suggestions for a name change in 2021.
Vincent E. Reed served as principal for only one year in 1968; his impact, though, lasted much longer than that. While racial unrest in the area had increased following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Reed became the school’s first Black principal. At Wilson, he was known for his thoughtfulness, integrity, and charisma; he was almost always seen greeting students at the beginning of a school day and knew all the students’ names because, according to his wife Frances Bullitt Reed, “he believed that one way you show students that you care is by learning their name.” Like Jackson, Reed also experienced rampant racism and backlash from the school’s predominantly white student body. At the time, Washington was in turmoil. DC’s Black population was growing and the white population was being pushed north to neighborhoods like Tenleytown. Upon his resignation in 1969, Reed was appointed as superintendent for DCPS for which he served for 5 years. He followed as Assistant Secretary of Education for the Reagan administration and finally served as The Washington Post’s Vice President of Communications. His most notable accomplishment, though, was the establishment of Benjamin Banneker High School, a magnet public high school in Northwest.
As of this school year, Jackson-Reed has been around for 90 years. For almost all of that time, the school had been remembered as Woodrow Wilson, but now JR’s legacy will be cemented under a new name, a name that honors the school’s black history and two of its most important leaders: Edna B. Jackson and Vincent E. Reed. •