In hubbub about Jacksonville school’s name, here are some more quietly immortalized

The name of one Duval County high school Nathan B. Forrest High has caused contention for years because its namesake was one of the first Ku Klux Klan leaders.

However, there are dozens of other schools in Duval County emblazoned with all or part of a persons name. They are immortalized on report cards and sports jerseys. Their names will be repeated for decades by alumni, who as children once lingered in the schools halls, even if they dont know the man or woman behind the name.

Jacksonville has been reminded who Nathan B. Forrest was, but what about the others? The ones who kept to the straight and narrow? The ones whose legacies would never prompt emergency School Board meetings?

Here are biographies of eight Duval County elementary, middle and high schools. Within this quick snapshot are men and women who fought for civil rights, built institutions and left legacies that shaped Jacksonville.

MAMIE AGNES JONES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Born in 1879, Mamie Agnes Jones taught for about 70 years, dedicating her energy to molding Northeast Floridas youth from when she was 16 until her elderly years. She attended Florida State College for Women, now Florida State University, to get her teaching certification after she was widowed. Over the course of her life, she taught in Duval, Orange, Levy and Nassau counties. Her surviving relatives described her as kind-hearted woman who saw the potential in everyone. She personally coached a young black man who worked in her home, helping to get him enrolled in high school and then college despite racial barriers to education. He later became a professor in California. Even after she retired, she kept teaching by running a kindergarten out of her house. She believed strength came from within a person, said Laura Jones, her granddaughter-in-law.

SALLYE B. MATHIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Sallye Brooks Mathis, born in Jacksonville, fought racial and gender barriers during the 1970s going toe-to-toe with segregationists and city councilmen alike to become one of the first women elected to the City Council. Born to a furniture salesman and a schoolteacher, she attended Stanton High School , earned her bachelors from Tuskegee Institute and her masters in education and guidance from Florida A&M University. She worked in the Duval County public school system for about 20 years. She taught geography and civics and then became a middle school dean. She got involved in civil rights work after retiring. Standing in picket lines outside City Hall, she faced men who threatened her with baseball bats but remained undaunted. She fought to end segregation in Jacksonville when the city delayed desegregating classrooms for at least 10 years after the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. In 1967, she was elected to the City Council and championed efforts to help African-Americans, the elderly and low-income residents. Some reports called her a fighter, as she often called out other members of the council as racists when they voted down measures that would help the African-American community. During her time on the council, her city hall cubicle contained a Bible, a prayer book and a sign that said: God so loved the world He didnt send a committee.

SADIE T. TILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Sadie T. Tillis, an elementary and middle school teacher, saw that her students needed help that went beyond the classroom. She partnered with local health agencies to build community programs to improve her students home lives. When her school, Morse Elementary, grew and moved to a new location, she became the principal. Her career included 25 years at that school and about 40 years total in the Duval County public school system. Morse Elementary was renamed in her honor in the 1990s.

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In hubbub about Jacksonville school's name, here are some more quietly immortalized

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