Meeting Monday

Those proposing that Anderson Elementary be renamed in honor of Johnny Wilson will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the New Birth Worship Center, 403 W. 22nd St., Anderson.

How often have you heard someone, when speaking of a departed relative or friend, say something like, “I wish I would have told him how much I loved and admired him”?

Communities sometimes suffer from the same remorse when a philanthropist, activist or another accomplished citizen is no longer around.

A determined group of Andersonians is trying to assure that this doesn’t happen in the case of Johnny Wilson. They have drafted a petition for Anderson Elementary School to be renamed in honor of this great man.

It would be difficult to fully appreciate the rich history of Anderson without a chapter about Wilson. His initial fame was based on his extraordinary athletic ability, for which he became known as Jumpin’ Johnny Wilson. He was named Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1946 after leading Anderson High School to the state championship — its last (for now) state title. Plus he was a high school state champion track athlete. After starring as an athlete at Anderson University, Wilson went on to play Negro League professional baseball and to play for the legendary Harlem Globetrotters.

Yes, Johnny Wilson is one of the greatest — perhaps the greatest — athlete Anderson has produced. But this alone wouldn’t justify the naming of a school in his honor. Instead, that distinction is much deserved for what Wilson has done off the field of play.

Foremost, Wilson has comported himself with dignity, even while enduring the barbs of prejudice. Wilson never played in the National Basketball Association or in Major League Baseball, not because he wasn’t capable, but because his skin was the wrong color. Though he felt the pang of these slights acutely, Wilson pressed onward with his life, determined to seize opportunities where he could.

He found his most important niche in working with youth. At clubs and in schools, Wilson became a coach, a friend and a mentor to countless kids here in Anderson, in Chicago and now in Pennsylvania, where he assists his son in coaching a college basketball team.

In his golden years, Wilson is still a vital and active man. Now is the time for the community to honor him by naming Anderson Elementary after him. Given his life’s work, it makes perfect sense that an elementary school — where the mission is to guide youth and lay the groundwork for responsible adulthood — should bear Johnny Wilson’s name.

The ACS school board, ultimately, would have to approve the renaming of Anderson Elementary. The ACS policy about naming of elementary schools doesn’t expressly forbid the naming of a school after a living person. But it does state that elementary schools must be named after their geographic location.

In the case of Wilson, the board should either change the policy or override it. After all, there is precedent. Erskine Elementary is named after a great man, Carl Erskine, a close friend and contemporary of Wilson’s. Shouldn’t another great Andersonian — one who embodies the ideals of perseverance, service to youth and dignity — be thus honored in his living years?