James Ford Rhodes, the man, opposed giving Blacks some key civil rights. In hindsight, you have to wonder why a Cleveland public school would be named after someone like him to begin with (“Seven schools, some named for slaveholders, to be renamed,” Jan. 10).
Several people have suggested that the school be renamed Jesse Owens High School. I agree with them for the following reasons:
1) Jesse Owens was one of the first African Americans to change white society’s perception of both Black athletes and, more importantly, people of color.
2) He was born James Cleveland Owens on Sept. 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, the youngest of 10 children. His family moved to Cleveland when he was 8.
3) Jesse Owens liked to work out on the Rhodes track.
4) After winning the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics, Owens was presented with several oak trees by the German government under Adolf Hitler. He dedicated one of the trees to Rhodes High School.
5) The tree still stands in the back of the south football stands.
6) He literally, as a Black man, proved to be the best in the world in front of the world’s biggest racist.
Bob Miller,
Columbus, Indiana.
Bob Miller was a member of the James Ford Rhodes Class of ‘65. Graduates can contribute their thoughts on the name via the high school’s alumni Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jfrhs/about
Ad Choices