Tempe Elementary School District has picked new names for three schools whose current namesakes were found to have ties to a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.
Last year, the city’s historical society discovered that three prominent community figures in the 1920s were tied to the KKK. These figures are the namesakes for not only schools, but street names and parks.
The issue was raised in October, and while the city is still in the process of renaming the parks and streets, all three of the new school names are longtime educators in the Tempe area.
Hudson Elementary will be called Joseph Spracale Elementary, Gililland Middle School will be named Geneva Epps Mosley Middle School and Laird School will be named Cecil Shamley School.
