The Ile-de-France region led by Valérie Pécresse on Wednesday July 5 baptized Rosa-Parks the Saint-Denis high school which had itself chosen the name of Angela Davis, because of the latter's positions, deemed "contrary to the laws of the Republic". The majority on the right voted in the permanent committee for this official name, "for lack of having received a new proposal" from the educational community of the high school, explains the regional executive in the adopted amendment.
At the end of March, the LR presidential candidate had refused to endorse the name of Angela Davis, yet chosen in 2018 by the board of directors of the school and validated by the mayor of the time, due to taken of critical positions vis-à-vis France. In particular, a forum co-signed in 2021 by the academic, now 79 years old, in which she castigated the "colonial mentality [which] manifests itself in the governance structures of France, in particular vis-à-vis lives of racialized citizens and immigrants".
Seized by Ms. Pécresse on this subject, the Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, had estimated in April that it was "not appropriate to change the name of the Angela-Davis high school", a "great figure in the movement for civil rights, of which no one is obliged to share all the points of view, but which can nevertheless appear on the pediments of our schools". "Many schools and establishments already bear the name of Angela Davis", added Mr. Ndiaye, for whom "the name of the establishment" of Saint-Denis has also "entered into use" since its opening, in 2017.
The minister "turned his eyes away from this question and relied on the choice of the region," said the latter, who announced that the school's board of directors confirmed the name Angela-Davis on June 21. "For lack of having received a new proposal", the region, which has authority over high schools, therefore chooses to name him Rosa-Parks, "an emblematic figure in the fight against segregation in the United States, who was also part of the high school pre-selection.
The communist opposition castigated in a press release a "new demonstration of the shallot race that part of the right is engaged in with the far right in the quest for identity and reactionary markers".
