The Falk Renaming Committee is looking to name Falk Elementary School on Madison’s west side after the late Milele Chikasa Anana, the longtime publisher and editor of UMOJA magazine, the trailblazing publication that highlighted the incredible people and stories of Madison’s African-American community.
Since the spring of 2018, Falk Elementary has been engaged in school renaming efforts, the committee says, and during this year’s Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, a group of Falk staff, parents and community members assembled to discuss the history of its school name and its “desire to claim a name better suited to our mission, vision and the community that we serve.”
A significant part of the Madison community knows Ms. Milele as mentor, advocate, community leader, trailblazer and “Village Mother” for her lifetime of volunteer efforts, activism, community organizing, extensive mentoring, and willingness to serve those in need. She passed away on May 6 at the age of 86.
Falk Elementary’s African-American student population, at around 30 percent, is one of the largest of any elementary school district in the MMSD.
The group intends to submit a name change proposal to honor Milele Chikasa Anana at the MMSD Board of Education meeting on Monday, July 27. If you would like your name added to the letter being presented to the MMSD Board of Education in support of renaming Philip Falk Elementary to Milele Chikasa Anana Elementary, click here.
