New Hanover County School Board votes to start renaming process for Parsley Elementary

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — On Tuesday night, the New Hanover County School board voted to begin the renaming process for Walter L. Parsley Elementary School.

Parsley played a role in the 1898 Massacre in Wilmington, which had some people calling for the name of the school to change.

The board voted 5-1 to approve Board Chair Lisa Estep’s proposal to begin renaming process, Bill Rivenbark voted against the proposal.

The process would last 60 days after the board releases an open-ended survey for the community to share ideas for the new name, but the board would have the final say.

To align with a policy change also adopted at Tuesday’s meeting, it cannot be named after a person, only a geographical location.

The board seemed to agree the name should change, aside from Rivenbark. He said he did not believe the school was named after the elder Parsley who was involved in the 1898 Massacre.

Board member Nelson Beaulieu says no matter who the school was actually named after, perception has become reality.

“What the elder Parsley did and represented is just terrible, but you can’t punish the rest of his family for the rest of their life. I don’t think that was named after him,” Rivenbark said.

“The 1898 Walter L. Parsley, I can’t turn from that. That’s me personally, I just can’t turn from that. I can’t know what I know and know the pain that it causes some people and ignore that,” Beaulieu said.

Descendants of Parsley wrote a letter to the board, suggesting that if the name is found to be offensive it should be changed.