 The DCPS board of trustees agreed in November 1910 to name the school the Alexander Crummell School, after the prominent Episcopal priest who was a prominent advocate of Pan-Africanism and who founded St. Luke's Episcopal Church—the first independent black Episcopal church in the city.It was the first school in the city to be named for an African American.Plans for the new school were ready by February 1, 1911, and ground was broken on March 20.