Around New England

Brookline Ditches School Name — Because 18th Century Benefactor Edward Devotion Owned A Slave

May 30, 2018

Brookline Town Meeting has voted to change the name of Edward Devotion Elementary School because the namesake owned a slave.

Edward Devotion (1667-1744) left the town of Brookline money in his will to start a school, which the town did in 1891, 147 years after he died.

Generations of Brookline kids have gone through the Devotion School since then, including John Fitzgerald Kennedy in early 1920s.

But the same will that bequeathed the money also noted a Negro slave among his worldly possessions.

That led Brookline Representative Town Meeting to ditch the name Tuesday night, 274 years after Devotion died, on a 171-19 vote with 14 abstentions, according to Brookline Patch.

Town Meeting picked as a new name Coolidge Corner School.

“When will it end?” one former resident said on the floor of Town Meeting, choking up as she said it, according to Brookline Patch, which also reported a response by tweet from one of the 240 members of Brookline Representative Town Meeting:

“When White Privilege ends.”