Did the San Francisco Board of Ed Almost Get One Right Excising Lincoln?
Lincoln and the Dakota War of 1862
Three members of the San Francisco Board of Education were recalled by a vastly greater number of votes than put them into office in the first place. They inflamed their constituency by horsing around with school names—and using sloppy historic rationales in the process—instead of working to get kids back behind their desks.
Their idea was to strike out the names of those who “engaged in the subjugation and enslavement of human beings; or who oppressed women, inhibiting societal progress; or whose actions led to genocide; or who otherwise significantly diminished the opportunities of those among us to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
Among the names chosen for exclusion were Paul Revere, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alamo, Dianne Feinstein, and Abraham Lincoln. Washington and Jefferson you could see coming: They were slave owners, after all. Paul Revere gets thumbs down for having forcibly colonized the Penobscot Indians—when actually he took part in an attack on Fort Penobscot during the War of Independence. As mayor, Feinstein allegedly replaced a Confederate flag in front of City Hall after the previous one was torn down by a protestor (she later had it replaced with a Union…
