Outside Lord Strathcona Elementary, a faded capsule of history is the only sign that one of the fastest women in the world once walked the halls of the East Vancouver school.
But a trio of young students believes that needs to change.
“I feel like Barbara Howard could definitely be a start to change that,” said student Chenesayi Kagande.
“And teach students about the past and help us to see the future.”
The elementary school is named after Lord Strathcona — or Donald Alexander Smith — a Scottish-born Canadian businessman who worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company and co-founded the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Chenesayi Kagande, Sojchana Swatton, and Matt Bogdanovic-Milosevic say it’s time to lose the colonial title and rename their school after the sprinter who broke barriers — on and off the track.
“Barbara Howard was such an inspirational woman to so many people whereas Lord Strathcona, he’s not an inspiration to most,” student Sojchana Swatton told Global News.
“Barbara Howard’s had such an impact on this community,” said student Matt Bogdanovic-Milosevic.
“And nobody really knows who that is, which is something that I want to change.”
The seventh graders learned about the Vancouver-born and raised runner from their teacher during Black History Month and have since launched a petition in support of changing their school’s name to ‘Barbara Howard Elementary’.
In 1938, at age 17, Howard qualified for the British Empire Games in Australia after she ran a 100-yard sprint in 11.2 seconds — one tenth of a second faster than the Games’ record.
“She deserved recognition,” BC Sports Hall of Fame curator Jason Beck said.
As the first Black female athlete to represent Canada in international competition, Howard was a sensation in Sydney, where fans gave her a stuffed Koala.
The teen sprinter helped the team win silver and bronze relay medals but came sixth in the 100-yard dash.
Howard’s dreams of attending the 1940 Summer Olympics in Tokyo ended when the Second World War derailed the games for the next decade.
The Canadian track team member’s promising running career was over before it could really take off – and Howard’s feat would be forgotten for decades.
“I just applaud these students’ efforts,” Beck told Global News.
“I’m blown away that they took this on, it’s getting recognition and I hope it’s successful.”
Howard went on to earn a Bachelor of Education at UBC and became the first visible minority teacher hired by the Vancouver School Board.
Her long career in the classroom included teaching physical education at Lord Strathcona.
Beck met Howard when she was in her early 90s and helped a group of sports historians and journalists unearth her triumph on the track.
“I just remember Barbara’s positive energy and just this, like vitality,” Beck recalled.
“We’d been lifted up by her spirit.”
Howard was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. Three years later, she was named to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Her niece Charline Robson said the late honours came just in time.
“She passed away when she was 96 and every new award she was just bubbling and phoning all her friends and jumping up and down,” Robson told Global News.
The VSB said it has not yet received a formal proposal to rename Lord Strathcona School but is committed to following a clear, transparent, inquiry-based process “where historical names can be reviewed and considered for possible change.”
The school district is engaged in a pilot regarding proposed revisions to the renaming process for existing facilities, and in January, it supported the renaming of Begbie Elementary and David Lloyd George Elementary.
In 2017, the VSB said Macdonald Elementary was renamed Xpey’ Indigenous Focus School to reflect the educational needs of students, and the history and cultural tradition of the school and community.
The students behind the Lord Strathcona petition told Global News the idea is not about erasing history, but instead choosing a more meaningful name to represent the community in 2021.
“I don’t think it’s turning our back,” said Bogdanovic-Milosevic. “I just think it’s uplifting and bringing up different pasts.”
“Barbara Howard is one of my heroes ’cause she pursued her dreams and pursued her goals and at the same time she helped people,” added Kagande.
Robson said Howard would have been “over the moon” to learn about the efforts to have a school renamed in her honour.
“Elementary students, a school that she taught at and education, she would have just loved that,” Robson told Global News.
“It would have been her best achievement.”