Previous Projects – Take Hate Down

Josephus Daniels

Originally, Drum Majors For Justice was focused on renaming Daniels Middle School. Daniels Middle School is named after a well known white supremacist, Josephus Daniels. Josephus Daniels was the editor of the News and Observer and he used his career to spread white supremacist ideas. He was also closely involved in overthrowing an elected multiracial government in Wilmington, NC which resulted in the Wilmington Massacre in 1898. During this event, around 2,000 white men destroyed businesses, homes, and lives of black citizens, and killed around 60 black residents. They also burnt down the only newspaper in Wilmington. It didn’t seem appropriate to commemorate and memorialize a man who had been a huge part of such discrimination and violence. And so, we focused on renaming Daniels Middle School in order to commemorate and memorialize Mr. Holt and his family. Sadly, we ran into many obstacles and were denied by the school board several times. Recently, there have been many developments in this project, however. Not only has a large statue of Josephus Daniels been removed from Nash Square in Downtown Raleigh, but Daniels is being renamed to Oberlin Middle School.

Mr. Joseph Holt

Drum Majors for Justice worked Closely with a man named Joe Holt. He was the first black student to attempt to integrate the school system in Wake county. Daniels Middle School was an all-white middle school named after a known white supremacist. Holt’s mother, a teacher, decided to try and enroll him in the school which was closer, and a better choice. Holt was continuously denied by the school board until he graduated Middle School. The same thing occurred when he applied to Broughton High School. Now not only was his application denied, but he received backlash from all communities. The Holt family persevered through death threats and hatred.

When we learned of the discrimination that the Holt family faced, we knew we needed to do something to memorialize the amazing efforts of the Holt Family to receive equal and integrated education. As a result, we began our campaign to rename Josephus Daniels Middle School to memorialize Mr. Holt’s mother, Elwyna Holt, instead. When our attempts to rename the school were unsuccessful, we continued to try and were denied again. Drum Majors also began writing Mr. Holt’s story down to spread it.

Also recently, a parent, Evan Kane, of a youth activist in this group emailed the school board as well. His email said:

“In 2017, a group of middle school students presented the Wake County School Board with a petition to name a new school for Elwyna Holt, who mounted an unsuccessful attempt to integrate Raleigh’s public schools by asking that her son, Joe Holt, Jr., be admitted to Daniels Junior High.
Mr. Fletcher commented at the time, ‘We have enough issues that cause angst without it being over a school name.’ Though he said this to bat down the petition, I actually think his logic is 100% pertinent today. Josephus Daniels’ white supremacist legacy continues to cause real suffering to African Americans in North Carolina, 122 years after he incited the coup and massacre in Wilmington. His name on a Wake County school (Daniels Middle School) is a daily reminder of his awful legacy and its continued impact on African Americans. Let’s rid ourselves of the angst that this name causes and choose a new, healing name for the school: Elwyna Holt Middle School. “
Evan Kane

This email was sent days before the decision was made to rename Daniels MS. Though we don’t know how large of an impact this had on the decision, it brought the issue back up and into the discussion. It strengthened the reasoning and argument because a community member backed it.

Different Classes of Exploris Middle School Students while involved in this service group

A Historical Sign in Raleigh describing Oberlin Village

The new name of this school will be Oberlin Middle School. This is important because the name Oberlin represents freedom of the oppressed. In Raleigh, Oberlin came from a village of free men and women who had been released from a nearby plantation. It was a thriving area of newly freed slaves which is why it represents that freedom and uplifting of the oppressed. (WRAL has an article on this name and Oberlin Village if you are looking for more information on the background of the name and the area.) The renaming of Daniels Middle School as Oberlin Middle School is incredibly important, because it signals a change from honoring a white supremacist to upholding the idea of liberation for all.

Smedes York, a property developer and former Raleigh Mayor, erected a memorial on Oberlin Road to commemorate those who had worked to integrate Raleigh and to recognize their struggles to stop discrimination in the area. One of these people was Joe Holt, the first black man to try and integrate Daniels Middle School, with whom Drum Majors For Justice has worked closely.

Although this project sparked our entire service group, We quickly branched out to take on multiple other projects.