Thousands of people supported the movement to change the name of Dixie School District and Dixie Elementary School in San Rafael. Over the past 22 years, we talked with neighbors, wrote letters, made phone calls, signed petitions and read history books at the Marin County Library.

I am grateful to every single one of our supporters, as well as trustees Brooks Nguyen and Megan Hutchinson who joined me in voting yes to change the names. Thank you to Marin Community Foundation for funding the name changes.

The students and alumni are inspirational leaders. They told us about the harmful impact of Dixie on their lives. They stayed up late to testify at board meetings. They joined us on silent marches from school to school across the district. They shared new name ideas and organized.

Together, we generated a historic transformation for our children. We can now teach the true history of Dixie. Dixie School District was created by the Marin County Board of Supervisors during the Civil War in 1863 when six million humans were enslaved in this country. Dixie is the national anthem of the Confederacy. The song, Dixie, was played at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as the president of the Confederacy. The Confederacy fought for white supremacy and lost. We changed the name of our school district and school because it was hurtful to many people.

We started public conversations about race, racism and privilege in an overwhelmingly white, affluent school district located in the heart of liberal Marin County. Only 3% of our students are African-American. We have no African-American teachers. We introduced new concepts to some of our neighbors like implicit bias, microaggressions and white fragility.

The discussions have been emotional and contentious, but they are essential in order for us to move beyond simply talking about our distaste for racism. We are teaching our children that difficult conversations are sometimes necessary in order for us to learn and change. We are learning to be anti-racist.

My actions have been countered with threats and a spiteful campaign to remove me from the district school board. Although the vicious attacks on me and my family over the past 10 months have been reprehensible, I deeply appreciate the support we have received from neighbors, educators, students, alumni, new friends and old friends. Every time I receive hate mail or see a new meme attacking me, more and more people expressed care and kindness. Their unceasing encouragement comforted and inspired me. Thank you Marin for having our backs!

The powerful movement that changed the names of Dixie School District and Dixie Elementary School is energized. We share common ground on many issues. We believe in social justice, economic justice and climate justice. We want to close the achievement gap in our schools. We want our children to learn about anti-bullying protocols, but most importantly how to practice being an ally. We want all students to feel represented through diverse hiring practices in school districts across Marin. Our teachers need additional resources to help them navigate 21st century educational requirements including implementation of the Fair Education Act and anti-bias training.

We discovered among ourselves that we are a strong network of people ready to fight for fairness, equity and justice. We are diverse and span many generations. We live in every precinct in Marin County and will continue our activism. We will never back down.

Why? We are better than this. Let’s create a better world for all of our children. Learn more at BetterThanThis.net.

Marnie Glickman is a Dixie School District trustee.