D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wants to rename an elementary school in Petworth after John Lewis, the late congressman and civil rights leader who passed away last year.

On July 6, Bowser sent legislation to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson to rename West Elementary School as John Lewis Elementary School. The school — which enrolled 342 students over the last year, more than half of whom were Black — was named after Joseph Rodman West, a U.S. Senator, Union general, and chief executive of the District.

“As a commander, he gave the order to torture and murder Apache chief Mangas Coloradas, who had come to meet with him to discuss terms of peace,” Bowser wrote. “DCPS finds that John Lewis, a lifelong champion for justice, is a far superior role model for students in the nation’s capital. Despite numerous attacks, injuries, and arrests, Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the civil rights movement and nonviolence.”

Lewis, a Georgia congressman who served 17 terms in the U.S. House, died at the age of 80 after a battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He was a leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and helped organize the 1963 March on Washington. He co-led the march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights and, when trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was one of the peaceful marchers attacked by state troopers and sheriffs’ deputies in what became known as Bloody Sunday.

The proposed renaming of West is part of the effort from the D.C. Facilities and Commemorative Expressions Working Group, which Bowser charged with reviewing the names of D.C. sites with possible ties to racism or slavery. The group recommended renaming 49 assets in D.C., including parks, playgrounds, residential buildings, and government buildings. West was one of the 21 public schools on the list for a recommended renaming.

Wilson High School in Tenleytown, named after President Woodrow Wilson — who resegregated the civil service after he took office in 1913 — is also set to be renamed; earlier this year DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee recommended that it be named after playwright August Wilson instead. This summer, D.C. added the name of former slave George Pointer to Lafayette Park and Rec Center in Chevy Chase, which was built on land that was taken from his family.

West Education Campus is currently undergoing a modernization and will open to students in the fall of 2021. D.C. Interim Chief Financial Officer Fitzroy Lee wrote in the legislation’s financial impact statement that the costs for purchasing new signage are already included in the project’s capital budget.

If the name change is approved, John Lewis Elementary School won’t be the only school in the region named after the late congressman and civil rights icon. The Fairfax County School Board voted last year to rename Robert E. Lee High School after Lewis.