Case study of a Tulsa, Oklahoma school name change from Confederate to Indigenous roots: Supporters' meaning-making

Abstract

This qualitative case study focuses on renaming an elementary school in Tulsa, Oklahoma from a Confederate namesake (Robert E. Lee Elementary) to a name reflecting Indigenous roots of the Muskogee Creek Nation (Council Oak). The renaming took place during a national movement of removing Confederate symbols and names from public places. The school’s original naming occurred in 1918, and the renaming occurred after a multi-year school board and community process in 2018. Using a constructionist and interpretivist approach and a conceptual orientation to memory work, I focused on the meaning-making of community members who supported the name change about the original and new names. I interviewed 16 people individually and through focus groups, collected documents, and observed community events to examine how supportive members constructed meanings through a continual, dynamic, social, and relational local process. For supporters, the process involved phases of awareness and action over multiple years. The renaming also caused community tensions and disagreements. The case is one of few studies focused on school renaming processes. It reflects both national meanings of Confederate names as “remembering” problematic histories as well as local meanings unique to “remembering” and “forgetting” aspects of Tulsa and Oklahoma’s racialized history