Who DC's Schools are Named For

The Washington DC public school system started in 1804, but it did not begin naming schools for people until 1864. (From here on "schools" means "public schools") Prior to that, schools were numbered by level such as Primary School #1 and the buildings were named for their location. The first school buildings were the Western and Eastern Free Schools, which opened in 1806, and these were accompanied by schools in Georgetown and the County. A Lancasterian School was opened in the former presidential stable of Thomas Jefferson in 1821. Four two-room buildings were built in the 1840's and a two story brick building that would later become the Berret Building was erected in 1857.  But in 1864 these small buildings were still the only school buildings in the city (there were, however, other schools in rented or borrowed facilities). That year 30 new schools were authorized. This was done to allow for a vastly expanded school system that would accommodate black students, the increased post-Civil War population and more girls (who didn't start going to public school until the 1840's). The first of these new schools was the Wallach School on Capitol Hill. Following the Berret and the Wallach, public schools and public charter schools have been named for no fewer than 251 people.

There may be more than 251. There are at least two cases of the government choosing to honor someone with a school and then changing their mind. And there are at least three cases where a school was, or may have been, originally named for its neighborhood, only to later take on the namesake of the neighborhood without evidence that the name change was official. (For example the Greenleaf School was named for the Greenleaf neighborhood but many years later it was referred to as the James Greenleaf School in official school documents). There are also two cases where the person for whom a school was named erroneously changed or is in dispute. Finally there are two schools, a public school and a charter school, named for Thurgood Marshall, but he is only counted once.

Below is a list of every one of DC's named public schools grouped by present schools, charter schools and schools that are no longer open. In addition, since the original purpose of this list was to identify schools named for slave owners and members of the Confederacy, those have been highlighted. The reason this was the original purpose is that some places are renaming schools named for Confederate heroes and there has been at least one push to rename a DC school because it was named for a slave owner, so I wanted to identify how many schools this would constitute.

In the late 19th and early 20th Century, DC had a habit of naming schools for former chief executives of the District of Columbia as well as former Presidents - and these are the source of most of the slave-owner named schools. Chief executives include Mayors, Governors and Presidents of the Board of Commissioners. Every chief executive between Robert Brent (1802-1812) and C.H. Rudolph (1910-1913) had a school named for them except Daniel Rapine, John Douglass and John Wight. Every president between J. Adams* and Coolidge had a school named for them except for Benjamin Harrison and Warren G. Harding. [Harrison reportedly didn't get one to avoid confusion with his grandfather's]. In the early 20th century the school board changed its naming philosophy and began to name most schools for teachers, principals, superintendents and school board members. During both periods, occasional schools were named for "great men and women" of national importance - especially those schools meant for black students.

In the table below, for schools named after more than one person, the descriptions are separated by two hyphens. The types of schools are abbreviated (ES = Elementary School, JHS = Junior High School, MS= Middle school, HS = High School, EC = Education Campus, PCS = Public Charter School). The namesake's "most common" name as I found them was used, but with no titles (Dr., Col., Rev., etc...). Finally, when giving their job title I used the terminology of their time, so you might find some out-dated terms like "colored". I hope this will not offend anyone, and it is certainly not my intent.

The names of known slave owners are highlighted in red. Note that it's almost impossible to determine if someone living in a place where slavery was legal was never a slave owner. According to some reports, most wealthy people living in places where slavery was legal, probably owned or hired slaves (from their owners) at least once. Even being an abolitionist is no guarantee that they never owned slaves, as some came around later in life (and then there's the curious case of Lafayette who owned slaves, but only as an attempt to end the slavery - it's complicated). Such people might have been slave-owners, or have used slave labor, without it ever being recorded.

There are only two schools named for people with ties to the Confederacy. Tyler, named for former President John Tyler who led the Virginia Secession movement, signed the orders of Secession, negotiated that state's entry into the Confederacy, and served in the Provisional Confederate Congress; and Lenox, named for former Mayor Walter Lenox who joined the Confederate Army and served for part of the war in the office dealing with POW exchanges. He came back to DC in 1863 to settle affairs stemming from his sister's death where he was arrested and imprisoned (without trial) as "an agent of the Confederate government." [Note in 2023: John Tyler was renamed for Shirley Chisholm]

There are several oddities about DC's named schools. Because there were many named for commissioners and because 1 out of every 3 commissioners was an engineer (by design), DC has more schools named for engineers than most school systems do. DC is also the only school system I could find that had a policy of naming schools for every president, meaning it has more schools named for presidents than other school systems do. Finally, DC has what appears to be a larger number of schools named for abolitionists and civil rights leaders than most do.

*A note about the Adamses. The first Adams School on R Street (now the Ross School) was named for John Adams, but people, including the School Board, started getting confused and calling it the John Quincy Adams School. The irony is that, like Benjamin Harrison, the younger Adams was intentionally skipped over specifically to avoid the confusion of two similarly named schools. Eventually, it seems, the error was repeated so often that it became fact. When the new Adams School was opened in 1930, the name "John Qunicy Adams School" was carved above the doors, removing all doubt as to who that school is named for. So the old Adams school was originally John Adams School and when it moved to 19th it became the John Quincy Adams School without anyone really deciding to remove John Adams' name from it. At least not until 1931 when it became "School Administration Annex No. 1" before later becoming the Ross School. So both presidents had a school named for them, but the son only due to what appears to be an error.

For further reading:

• History of the Public Schools of Washington, DC from 1805 to 1875
• 1891 Map of DC Schools, owned and rented
• Eighty Years of the Public Schools of Washington: 1805 to 1885
• 1911 Annual Report of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, Vol IV, Report of the Board of Education - Includes a section on the history of school naming in the District and a discussion of naming policy and tradition.
• Dabney, Lilian Gertrude. The History of Schools for Negroes in the District of Columbia 1807-1947 (Catholic University of America Press, 1949)
• Replace or Modernize (2001) - The future of the District of Columbia's Endangered Old and Historic Schools
• Haycock, R. L. Biographical Directory of the Public Schools of the District of Columbia,  (Washington, DC, District of Columbia Office of the Statistician, 1953)
• Wormley, G. Smith. "Educators of the First Half Century of Public Schools of the District of Columbia." The Journal of Negro History 17, no. 2 (1932): 124-40. doi:10.2307/2714463.
• There have been many other attempts to list every school and who it was named for (such as this attempt in 1895 and another in 1899), almost all with errors. I have tried to correct those, however I suspect errors remain in part because buildings were normally referred to by one name and a good effort to remember who, or what, that name referenced didn't start until the early 20th Century, by which time oft-repeated errors had become fact.
• Hines, Marian E. 200 Years of Public Education in the Nation's Capitol (Washington, DC, Delta Chapter, Delta Kappa Gamma International, 2004)
• What's in a Name (2010) - DC Community Heritage Project pamphlet
• What's in a Name (2011) - DC Community Heritage Project pamphlet. These have some glaring errors, but are still useful

Current Schools 

Maude E. Aiton ES - Principal of the Americanization School (1919-1945), President of the NEA Department of Adult Education (See bio below) (In 2020, DC passed a law to rename the Aiton School for Loraine H. Whitlock effective July 1, 2022)
Margaret M. Amidon-Anthony Bowen ES - Principal of Female Grammar School (1854-1869)  --- Founder of a school for free black students and advocate for free education for blacks after the Civil War
Frank Washington Ballou HS - Superintendent of DC public schools (1920-1946)
George Bancroft ES - Secretary of the Navy (1845-1846)/noted historian instrumental in founding the Naval Academy
Job Barnard ES - Justice, US District Court of DC (1899-1914), Public Schools Trustee (1898-1900)
Benjamin Banneker HS - Surveyor of the District's south corner boundary stone, Astronomer
Anne Beers ES - Supervising Principal, 8th and 4th Division (1912-1926). More.
Alexander Graham Bell Multicultural HS - Inventor of the telephone, fiber optics and other inventions; first President of the American Association to Promote Teaching of Speech to the Deaf
Lawrence E. Boone ES - Principal of the school, when it was named for Orr, for two decades
Robert Brent ES - 1st Mayor of the City of Washington (1802-1812) and first Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of DC Public Schools
Ronald H. Brown College Preparatory HS - 30th Secretary of Commerce (1993-1996) (born in DC)
Hugh M. Browne EC - Washington-born educator and education innovator, teacher at the Colored Preparatory and M Street High School (1886-1898)
Blanche Bruce-James Monroe ES @ Park View -  Public Schools Trustee (1892-1895) and only Senator born in to slavery --- 5th President of the United States (1817-1825)
John Burroughs ES - Naturalist and nature essayist
Francis L. Cardozo EC - Principal of Colored Preparatory School (1884-1896)

Shirley Chisholm ES - First Black woman elected to the United States Congress (served 1969-1983)
Grover Cleveland ES - 22nd and 24th President of the United States (1885-1889 and 1893-1897)
Henry D. Cooke ES - 1st Governor of the District of Columbia (1871-1873)
Calvin Coolidge HS - 30th President of the United States (1923-1929)
Alice Deal MS - Principal of Columbia Junior High School (1920-1928)
Charles Drew ES - Medical researcher in the field of blood transfusions
Paul Laurence Dunbar HS - Author and Poet
John Eaton ES - U.S. Commissioner of Education (1870-1886), helped organize DC's Board of Education
Charles William Eliot-Lemon G. Hine MS - President of Harvard University (1869-1909) - Civil Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1889-1890)
Duke Ellington School of the Arts - Jazz Musician
C.H.O.I.C.E. Academy @ Mattew G. Emery - 22nd Mayor of the City of Washington (1870-1871)
Millard Fillmore Arts Center - 13th President of the United States (1850-1853)
School Without Walls @ John R. Francis-Thaddeus Stevens - Public Schools Trustee (1887-1889) --  Senator who led the campaign to end slavery in the District of Columbia
James Garfield ES - 20th President of the United States (1881) (School might have been named for the Garfield neighborhood and then changed - officially or by error - later)
William Lloyd Garrison ES - Abolitionist publisher and leader, suffragist
School-Within-School @ Anne M. Goding - Principal of Wilson Normal School (1900-1926)
Rose Lees Hardy MS - Assistant superintendent of DC public schools (1925-1932)
Caroline Wilder Harris ES -  Member of  the DC Board of Education (1911-1914)
Charles Hart MS - Principal of Eastern High School (1918-1945)
Phoebe Apperson Hearst ES - Wealthy benefactor and proponent of kindergarten education in DC, co-founder of the all-girls National Cathedral School and co-founder of the PTA
Dorothy I. Height ES - School administrator, educator, civil rights leader and women's rights activist
Flora L. Hendley ES - Supervising Principal, 6th and 7th Divisions  (1908-1924), leader in effort to get pensions for DC teachers
Charles Hamilton Houston ES - 20th century civil rights leader, "the Man Who Killed Jim Crow"
Anthony T. Hyde - Henry Addison ES - President of the Board of Trustees of Georgetown public schools (1871-1874) -- 19th and 21st Mayor of Georgetown (1845-1857, 1859-1869)
Bernard T. Janney ES - Supervisor of Georgetown Schools (1874-1916)
Thomas Jefferson MS - 3rd President of the United States (1801-1809) & 1st President of the Board of Trustees of DC Public Schools
Dr. John H. Johnson MS - Member of  the DC Board of Education (1916-1937)
John H. Ketcham ES - Civil Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1874-1877)
Francis Scott Key ES - Author of the Star Spangled Banner
Ephraim Gardner Kimball ES -  Supervising Principal, 7th Division (1909?-1925?) Assistant Superintendent?? (late 20's-30's) (see bio below)
Martin Luther King, Jr. ES - 20th century civil rights leader
Stephen Elliot Kramer MS - First Assistant Superintendent of DC Schools (1924-1936)
Marquis de Lafayette ES - Revolutionary War hero
Samuel P. Langley ES - Secretary of the Smithsonian (1887-1906)
Jessie LaSalle-Bertie Backus EC - Assistant Superintendent (1923?-1946?)-- Principal of Alice Deal (1931-1955)/education innovator (See LaSalle bio below)
Madeline Vaughn Leckie ES - School teacher in DC schools (1923-1963)
Abraham Lincoln Multicultural MS - 16th President of the United States (1861-1865)
Capitol Hill Montessori @ John A. Logan - Senator who penned legislation providing federal funding for local schools, and attempted to ensure that funds would be equally distributed among black and white schools.
William Ludlow-Zachary Taylor ES - Military Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1886-1888) -- 12th President of the United States (1849-1850)
Horace Mann ES - Father of the Common School Movement
John Walker Maury ES - 15th Mayor of the City of Washington (1852-1854)
Henry MacFarland MS  - 9th President of the DC Board of Commissioners (1900-1910)
William McKinley MS & HS - 25th President of the United States (1897-1901)
Kelly Miller MS - Civil rights intellectual and former DC schoolteacher (1889-1890)
Myrtilla Miner ES - Founder and 1st Principal of the Normal School for Colored Girls (1851-1857)
Luke C. Moore HS - D.C. Superior Court Judge (1972-1994), Chairman of the D.C. Street Academy Board of Directors (Luke C. Moore was previously the D.C. Street Academy).
Lucy E. Moten @ Garnet C. Wilkinson ES - Principal of the Miner School (1883-1920) -- Assistant Superintendent of Colored School (1924-1951)
Ben W. Murch ES - Supervising Principal, 1st and 2nd Divisions (1908-1927)
John C. Nalle ES - Supervising Principal, 10th and 11th Divisions (1902-1926)
Crosby Stuart Noyes ES - Trustee of the Reform School of DC (1886-1908) [President (1905-1908)]
James F. Oyster-John Quincy Adams Bilingual School - Civil Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1920-1925) and President of the DC Board of Education (1910-1912). -- 6th President of the United States (1825-1829)
Walter B. Patterson ES - Supervising Principal, 9th Division (1907-1944)
Daniel A. Payne ES - A.M.E. Bishop and education advocate
George Peabody ES - the "Father of Modern Philanthropy" who's donation made the Peabody Library possible (This school was briefly named L'Enfant, but neighbors complained because they feared it would be called "the Infant School." The name was changed before the school opened, but not before the name L'Enfant was carved into the building. That engraving was covered with a marble slab reading "Peabody School")
Seth Ledyard Phelps HS - 1st President of the DC Board of Commissioners (1878-1879)
Mary H. Plummer ES - Principal of Francis JHS (1928-1947)
William B. Powell ES - Superintendent of DC Public Schools (1885-1900)
Charles W. Raymond Campus - Military Commissioner of the District of Columbia (1888-1890)
Marie H. Reed ES -1st chairman of the Morgan Community School Board (1967-1969)

Vincent Reed-Edna Burke Jackson HS - The school's first African-American principal and first African-American teacher. Renamed from Woodrow Wilson High School in 2022 because of Wilson's "racist legacy".

Theodore Roosevelt HS - 26th President of the United States (1901-1909)
John W. Ross ES - 7th President of the DC Board of Commissioners (1893-1898), President of the Board of Trustees of Public Schools of DC (1888-1892)
Alfred Kiger Savoy ES - Assistant Superintendent of Colored Elementary Schools (1932-1954)
William Winston Seaton ES - 13th Mayor of the City of Washington (1840-1850)
Alexander Robey Shepherd ES - 2nd Governor of the District of Columbia (1873-1874)
Abram Simon ES - President of the DC Board of Education (1919-1923)
Henry Smothers ES - Founder of one of the first, and longest operating, schools for black students. The Smothers School (a.k.a. Union Seminary, Columbian Institute) open 1822-1862.
John Phillip Sousa MS - Conductor and composer
Edwin L. Stanton ES - 2nd Secretary of the District of Columbia (1871-1873)
Benjamin Stoddert ES - 1st Secretary of the Navy (1798-1801) from Georgetown
Alexander Tait Stuart-Julius W. Hobson MS - Superintendent of DC Public Schools (1900-1906, 1908-1911) -- DC Councilmember (1975-1977)
Neval Thomas ES - Teacher and President of the DC local NAACP (1925-1930)
Strong John Thompson ES - Principal of DC schools (1854-1897) but for 6 years at a private school because he didn't want to teach in integrated schools.
George Truesdell ES - Civil Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1894-1897)
Harriet Tubman ES - Abolitionist and suffragist
Anita J. Turner ES - DC Director of Physical Education (1924-1936)
John Peter Van Ness ES - 10th Mayor of the city of Washington (1830-1834)
James E. Walker - Alfred Jones EC - Supervising Principal, 13th Division (1909-1917) became the first officer from DC to die during World War I service  -- First black Public Schools Trustee (1867-1870)
Catherine R. Watkins ES - Director of Kindergartens (1904?-1937) (Biography below)
Ida B. Wells MS - Journalist and civil rights leader (new school as of 2019)
Joseph Rodman West EC - 3rd President of the DC Board of Commissioners (1882-1883)
Samuel Edwin Wheatley EC -  Civil Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1886-1889)
John Greenleaf Whittier EC - Abolitionist poet
James Ormond Wilson ES - Superintendent of DC Public Schools (1870-1885)
Howard Dilworth Woodson HS - Deanwood Community leader
Malcolm X MS @ Mildred Green - 20th century civil rights leader -- School Principal (1937-1956)

Former Schools (and their location) [underline means building is extant]

George J. Abbott School (6th and New York Ave., NW) - Public Schools Trustee (1845-1851) (see bio below)
John Adams School (1730 R Street, NW) - 2nd President of the United States (1787-1801)
Enoch Ambush School (L, between 6th and 7th St., SW) - Co-founder of an early school for free black students in DC (see bio below)
Chester A. Arthur School (Arthur Pl., between B and C, NW) - 21st President of the United States (1881-1885)
George Bell School (Originally 1st, between B and C St., SW, then 22nd and D St., SW in 1933) - Co-founder, in 1807, of the first school in the District for free black students
James G. Berret School (1408 Q St., NW) - 18th Mayor of the City of Washington (1858-1861)
Francis P. Blair, Sr School (635 I St., NE) - Editor of the Washington Globe and a founder of the Republican Party
James H. Blake School (North Capitol, between K and L St., NW) - 3rd Mayor of the City of Washington (1813-1817)
Sayles J. Bowen School (3rd and K St., SW) - 21st Mayor of the City of Washington (1868-1870)
Thea Bowman PCS (330 21st St., NE) - Catholic clergywoman and educator
William A. Bradley School (60 Linworth Place) - 11th Mayor of the City of Washington (1834-1836)
Martha Briggs ES (22nd and E St., NW) - Principal of Miner Normal School (1879-1883)
Thomas Barbour Bryan ES (1315 Independence Ave., SE) - Civil Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1875-1878)
James Buchanan School (1325 D St., SE) - 15th President of the United States (1857-1861)
James F. Bundy School (429 O St., NW) - Member of the DC Board of Education (1901-1907)
Anna Lalor Burdick Vocational HS (1300 Allison St., NW) -  The U.S. Department of Education's Special Agent for Trade and Industrial Education for Girls and Women (1917-1939) and an advocate for vocational training for women
Thomas Carberry ES (410 5th St., NE) - 6th Mayor of the City of Washington (1822-1824)
George Washington Carver ES (1027 45th St., NE) - Botanist and inventor
Eliza Chamberlain School (2512 East Pl. NW) - Teacher and principal of  Mount Zion Freedman's School (1864-1870) who died of tuberculosis from poor conditions in the school.
John F. Cook Sr. School (30 P St., NW) - Principal of Union Seminary, a school for free black students (1834-1855). Original building was at 429 O St, NW, site of the Bundy School.
Thomas Corcoran School (1219 28th St., NW) - 10th, 12th and 14th Mayor of Georgetown (1806, 1808-1810, 1812-1813)
William Cranch School (12th and G SE) - Member of the Board of Trustees of Public Schools of Washington (1805-1812)
Alexander Crummell School (1900 Gallaudet St., NE) - Founder of the American Negro Academy
W.W. Curtis School (O St, between 22nd and 23rd NW ) - Member and sometimes President of the Board of Trustees of Public Schools of DC (1865-1888)
Adelaide Davis ES (4430 H St., SE) - Supervising Principal, 6th Division (1923-1929)
William Dennison School (S St., between 13th and 14th, NW ) - Member of the Temporary Board of Commissioners of DC (1874-1878)
Josiah Dent School (210 South Carolina, SE) - 2nd President of the DC Board of Commissioners (1879-1882)
William E. Doar Jr. Wedj Edgewood PCS (705 Edgewood NE)- National Executive Director of Phi Beta Sigma (1949-1979) and father of one of the School's founders. Name changed to City Arts and Prep in 2016
Frederick Douglass School (1st and Pierce, NW) - 19th Century civil rights leader
Henry W. Draper ES (908 Wahler Place SE) - Supervising Principal, 1st Division (1927-1945)
James B. Edmonds School (901 D St., NE) - 4th President of the DC Board of Commissioners (1883-1886)
Isaac Fairbrother School (10th and E, SW) - Supervising Principal, 4th/8th Division (1884-1912)
Dorothy Celeste Boulding Ferebee - Marion Conover Hope ES (3999 8th St. SE) -  Civil rights leader & first director of Southeast House (see below for Hope biography)
Evelyn B. Fletcher-Phillip T. Johnson MS (4650 Benning Rd SE) - Teacher - Member of the D.C. Board of Education (1949-1952) (see below for bios)
Peter Force School (1740 Massachusetts Ave NW) - 12th Mayor of the City of Washington (1836-1839)
Benjamin Franklin School (963 13th St., NW) - Founding Father of the United States
Benjamin Brown French Manual Training School (NW corner of 7th and G St, SE) - President of the Board of Alderman and the Board of Common Council (1840s-50's), Commissioner of Public Buildings (1853-1867)
Nathanial Parker Gage ES (2053 2nd Street NW) - Supervising Principal, 2nd Division (1874-1903)
Joseph Gales, Jr. School (65 Massachusetts Ave, NW) - 9th Mayor of the City of Washington (1827-1830)
Henry Highland Garnet School (2001 10th St., NW) - Abolitionist minister
Mildred E. Gibbs ES (500 19th Street, NE) - Principal of the Stevens School (1904-1935) (more)
Joshua R Giddings ES (315 G Street, SE) - Leader of effort to end slavery in DC
Ulysses S. Grant School (2130 G St., NW) - 18th President of the United States (1869-1877)
James Greenleaf School (4 1/2 St. between M and N, SW) - DC land speculator (school originally named for neighborhood but later attributed to person, possibly in error)
Archibald Grimke ES (1923 Vermont Ave NW) - Civil Rights leader
Alexander Hamilton School (Bladensburg Road between Q and R) - Founding father. Name was suggested due to its location at Mount Hamilton.
Julia West Hamilton JHS (6th and Brentwood Parkway, NE ) - Washington, DC civic leader
William Henry Harrison ES (2120 13th St. NE) - 9th President of the United States (1841)
Rutherford B. Hayes School (500 K St. NE) - 19th President of the United States (1877-1881)
Joseph Henry School (7th and P St. NW) - 1st Secretary of the Smithsonian (1846-1878) and leader of the "Columbian Teachers Association."
Charles E. Hilton School (212 6th St, NE) - Supervising Principal, 3rd Division (1873-1877) (see bio below)
Gardner G. Hubbard School (1100 block of Kenyon St, NW) - Founder and 1st President of Bell Telephone, founder of the journal Science, a founder and the first president of the National Geographic Society (1888-1897), trustee of GWU (1883-1897)
Andrew Jackson School (3050 R St, NW) - 7th President of the United States (1829-1837)
Andrew Johnson School (~3200 Hiatt Pl, NW) - 17th President of the United States (1865-1869)
Barbara Jordan PCS at Louis C. Rabaut JHS (100 Peabody Street, NW) - Political pioneer for black women -- Chair of the House Subcommittee on the District of Columbia (1955-1961)
Joseph R. Keene School (33 Riggs Road) - Supervising Principal, 6th and 8th Division (1876-1906) (see bio below)
John Mercer Langston ES (43 P St., NW) - 1st black congressman from Virginia; Founder and Dean of Howard Law School (1869-1875), the first black law school in America.
Mamie Dixon Lee School (100 Gallatin St., NE) - Early 1960's advocate for the education of intellectually disabled children.
Pierre L'Enfant School (425 C St., NE) - Original city planner for Washington, DC (School name was changed to Peabody before the school opened)
Walter Lenox ES (725 5th St., SE) - 14th Mayor of the City of Washington (1850-1852). Confederate.
Katie C. Lewis ES (300 Bryant Street) - Principal (1896?-1927) (see bio below)
Elijah Parish Lovejoy School (440 12th St., NE) - Martyred abolitionist newspaperman
James Madison School (651 10th St., NE) - 4th President of the United States (1809-1817)
William Beans Magruder School (1625 M St., NW) - 17th Mayor of the City of Washington (1856-1858)
Thurgood Marshall ES (3100 Fort Lincoln Drive) - 1st black Supreme Court Justice (1967-1991)
Hugh McCormick School (1200 block of 3rd St., SE, East side) -  Supervising Principal, 4th District (1845-1851) (see bio below) - There are other times when this was called the Alexander McCormick School, for Hugh's father. I can't find an original source to narrow it down, so I'd say it could have been either one. It was named the McCormick school a little before Hugh's death, but not sure if that makes it more or less likely.
Emma F. G. Merritt ES (5002 Hayes St, NW) - 1st kindergarten teacher for black students in the United States; supervising principal, 10th and 11th Divisions (1927-1930)
Eugene Meyer ES (2501 11th St. NW)  - Owner and Publisher of the Washington Post
Winfield Scott Montgomery School (421 P St., NW) - Assistant Superintendent of Colored Schools (1900-1924)
Henry P. Montgomery School (940 27th St., NW)- Supervising Principal, 7th and 9th Divisions (1882-1889)
Thomas P. Morgan School (1430 V St., NW)- Civil Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1879-1883) - The Morgan of Adams Morgan.
Samuel Morse School (433 R St., NW) - Inventor of the telegraph
Lucretia Mott School (NW Corner of Bryant and 6th, NW) - Abolitionist, Women's rights activist, advocate for peace
Benjamin Grayson Orr ES - (2200 Minnesota Ave SE) 4th Mayor of the City of Washington (1817-1819). Renamed for Lawrence E. Boone in 2018 because Orr was a slave owner.
James W. Patterson Elementary School (2001 U St., NW)- U.S. Senator who sponsored the legislation creating a public school system for black students in Washington, DC. [Patterson and Garnet were first adjacent but separate, then combined into one new school, then closed].
Leon L. Perry School (128 M St., NW) - Director of Division 11 of the DC Public Schools (1930-1946) (see bio below)
Wendell Phillips JHS (2735 Olive St., NW) - 19th century abolitionist and civil rights leader.
James K. Polk School - (SE corner of 7th and P NW) - 11th President of the United States (1845-1849)
Charles F. Powell School (3204 Hiatt Pl. NW) - Military Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1893-1897)
Eliza B. Randall JHS (65 I St., SW) - Principal of the Delaware Avenue School (1867-1874). School was renamed for her two days after her death.
Jesse Reno Rose School (4820 Howard St.,NW) - Civil War hero -- Rose Weintraub Alpher, founding principal of the school for children with special needs that became Rose School.
George Harris Richardson ES (5300 Blaine St. NE) - Public Schools Trustee (1897-1900)
Daniel C. Roper MS (4800 Meade St.,NE) - Member of  the DC Board of Education (1931-1932)
Cuno H Rudolph ES (5200 2nd St NW) - 10th and 15th President of the DC Board of Commissioners (1910-1913, 1921-1926)
Marion P. Shadd ES (5601 E. Capitol St., SE) - Assistant Superintendent in charge of Elementary Schools and Chief Examiner for Divisions 10-13 (1924-1927)
Alice and Ernestine Shaed ES (301 Douglas St. NE) - Supervising Director of the DC Department of Supervision and Instruction (1957-1963) -- DC Teacher (1927-1970)
Robert Gould Shaw ES (128 M St., NW, 1616 Marion St., NW) - Commander of the first all-black regiment from the north. [Interestingly, when the name of the school was announced, the paper reported he was "colored" (he wasn't)].
Abby S. Simmons School (~148 Pierce St., NW) - Teacher. At time of her retirement, the last active white teacher from the "colored" school system.
John Fox Slater ES (45 P St., NW) - Philanthropist who funded the education of freed slaves
Samuel N. Smallwood School (I between 3rd and 41/2 SW) - 5th and 7th Mayor of the City of Washington (1819-22, 1824)
Joel Elias Spingarn HS (2500 Benning Road, NE) - Jewish-American Civil Rights leader and 2nd President of the NAACP (1930-1939)
Charles Sumner School (17 M Street, NE) - Anti-slavery Senator
William Syphax School (1360 Half Street, SW) - First President of the Board of Trustees of the Colored Public Schools of Washington, D.C (1868-1871)
John S. Hyde Leadership PCS at William Howard Taft JHS (1800 Perry St., NE) - Philanthropist whose donated the home that became the 1st Hyde School -- 27th President of the United States (1909-1913)
Mary Church Terrell ES (3301 Wheeler Road  SE) - Member of  the DC Board of Education (1895-1906), first black woman to ever serve on a US school board.
Robert H. Terrell JHS (155 L Street NW) - Principal of M Street High School (1899-1901), 1st African-American Justice of the Peace in Washington, DC
John Threlkeld School (1221 36th St., NW) - 4th Mayor of Georgetown (1793-1794)
Joseph Meredith Toner School (24th and F St., NW) - Philanthropist, Physician and City leader
John T. Towers School (SE corner of 8th and C, SE) - 16th Mayor of the City of Washington (1854-1856)
William Johnson Twining School (E side of 3rd btwn N and O, NW) - Military Commissioner for the District of Columbia (1878-1882)

John Tyler  ES - 10th President of the United States (1841-1845) School was renamed for Shirley Chisholm in 2023. 
Martin Van Buren School (1328 W St., SE) - 8th President of the United States (1837-1841)
Richard Wallach School (335 8th St. SE ) - 19th Mayor of the City of Washington (1861-1868)
Booker T. Washington PCS (1346 Florida Ave., NW) - Educator and Civil Rights leader
Margaret Murray Washington Career HS (27 O St., NW) - Educator and Civil Rights leader
Nelson E. Weatherless ES (4300 C Street, SE) - Teacher, Board of Examiner secretary and Grand Master of the District Masons.
Ruth K. Webb ES (1375 Mt. Olivet Rd, NE), Supervising Principal, 1st Division (19??-1948) (see bio below)
William Benning Webb School (603 15th St., NE) - 5th President of the DC Board of Commissioners (1886-1889)
Daniel Webster ES (729 10th St., NW) - 14th and 19th Secretary of State (1841-1843, 1850-1852)
Roger C. Weightman School (23rd and M, NW) - 8th Mayor of the City of Washington (1824-1827)
Henry Wilson School (2428 17th St, NW) - Sponsor of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act that ended slavery in DC.

Woodrow Wilson HS - 28th President of the United States (1913-1921). School was renamed for Edna Burke Jackson, the school's first African-American teacher and Vincent Reed, its first African-American principal in 2022.
Martha Harris Winston EC (3100 Erie, SE) - Principal of Charles Young (1950's and 60's) (see bio below)
James Wormley School (3325 Prospect St, NW)- Chairman of the school construction board for what would become the Seward and Wormley schools, he died before the schools opened.
Charles Young School (820 26th St, NE) - 1st black colonel in the US Army

Charter Schools

Maya Angelou PCS at Wilson Bruce Evans - Poet -- 1st Principal of the Armstrong School (1906-1918)
Friendship Samuel C. Armstrong Academy - Founder of Hampton University (DC may have accidentally named it Samuel G. Armstrong but the name was corrected)
DC Preparatory William Benning Campus -  School was originally named for the neighborhood, but was changed in 1909 to be named for the farmer who owned the land the neighborhood is named for.
Mary McLead Bethune Academy at Lucy D. Slowe - 20th century civil rights leader and educator -- First Dean of Women at Howard University (1922-1937) and the first black dean of women anywhere
Friendship PCS at Henry Taylor Blow-Franklin Pierce - Member of the Temporary Board of Commissioners of DC (1874) -- 14th President of the United States (1853-1857)
Friendship PCS at John A. Chamberlain ES - Supervisor of manual training in Washington schools (1909-1930)(See bio below)
Cesar Chavez PCS - American labor leader and civil rights activist
Septima Clark PCS and Thurgood Marshall PCS at James G. Birney ES - American educator and civil rights activist --1st black Supreme Court Justice (1967-1991) -- Abolitionist politician, newspaperman and father of DC School Trustee William Birney.
Euphemia Lofton Haynes PCS at Eugene A. Clark - First woman to serve as President of the DC Board of Education (1966-1967) -- First President of Miner Teachers College (1930-1953)(more)
Richard Kingsman Academy PCS (1375 E St., NE) - Member and Vice-President of the DC Board of Education (1900-1906)
Carlos Rosario (at J. Holdsworth Gordon Adult Education Center/JHS) International PCS - Creator of the DC Public School Bilingual Education Program -- Member and President of the DC Board of Education (1901-1906) (See bio below)
Eagle Academy at Gladys K. McGogney - Pioneer of free lunches in the Columbia Heights area (see bio below)
Edward A. Paul PCS - 1st Principal of Washington High School (1877-1888); was killed at a young age in a bicycle crash
Bridges at C. Melvin Sharpe Health ES - President of the Board of Education (1948-1957) (see bio below)
St. Coletta PCS - Colette of Corbie was a Franciscan reformer. When Franciscan sisters in the US began creating schools for special needs children in the mid-19th Century, they named their schools after her.
Elsie Whitlow Stokes PCS - An Arkansas schoolteacher who was mother of the school's founder
Friendship PCS at Carter G. Woodson Collegiate Campus - "the father of black history"
Richard Wright PCS - Author of Native Son and other writings dealing with the black American experience

Footnote:
In 1889, the Commissioners voted to name the "new school on L Street, between 6th and 7th" after former Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade. Not only is there no evidence that a public school ever operated under that name, but there is also no evidence that there was ever a school on the 600 block of L in any quadrant of the city. It's unclear to this author what happened to that school.

Biographies not found online

George J. Abbott

George Jacob Abbott, was an educator, diplomat and the private secretary of Daniel Webster. Abbot, the son of the Rev. Jacob Abbot, a Unitarian minister, was born in either Wyndam or Hampton Falls, NH on July 14, 1812. He graduated from Harvard College in 1835 and from divinity school in 1839. He moved to Washington, DC in 1837 where he was a Unitarian minister, opened and taught at a school for boys, and worked as a clerk in the State Department. He married Ann Taylor Gilman Emery in 1841 (she died in 1861). He was a leader in the movement to transition the DC school system to the New England system that led to universal (white) eligibility paid for by a new tax and the 1845 reorganization of the system with one board overseeing 4 divisions. He was a member of the new DC Board of Trustees of Public Schools from 1845 to 1851. In 1850 he became the private secretary to Daniel Webster during Webster's second term (1850-1852) as Secretary of State and was with Webster at the time of his death. After Webster's death, he stayed with the State Department as chief of the Consular Bureau in Washington, DC (1852-1864) followed by six years as U. S. Consul at Bradford and Sheffield, England (1864-1870). He left the State Department to work for several years as a professor in the Theological School at Meadville, PA. In 1877, he was appointed U. S. Consul at Goderich and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where he died on Jan. 21, 1879.

Maude E. Aiton

Maude E. Aiton was the principal of the Americanization School in Washington, DC from 1918 to 1945. She was born in Iowa in 1876 to Robert and Sarah Aiton and moved to DC prior to 1888. There she went to school and by 1901 was teaching in the DC Schools, for some time as a kindergarten teacher. She was principal of the Americanization School from the day it opened in 1918 until her retirement in 1945. She also served as the president of the DC Grade School Teachers Union (1919-1920), testifying before Congress several times in search for higher wages and she helped write a book on teaching adults to read. She was for some time President of the NEA Department of Adult Education. She died on March 29, 1946 and was buried in Congressional Cemetery.

Dr. James Enoch Ambush

Enoch Ambush was an educator, church founder and physician in Washington, DC. He was born free in Maryland in 1807. Little of his childhood is known, but in 1833, he and George Bell co-founded Wesleyan Seminary, a boys school for free black children which became the only such school in the section of SW then known as the Island. Though he had no formal education himself, he taught there from its founding until 1865 when a public school system for black children was created and his school closed. The school started in the basement of Israel Bethel Church on Capitol Hill before moving to its own schoolhouse on E Street SW near 10th in 1843. He also assisted in opening a school for free black girls in 1850. With Anthony Bowen, he founded St. Paul AME Church in October 1856. Ambush studied botanic medicine and after closing his school became a practicing physician, while remaining active in local politics and the civil rights movement of the time. He died in July of 1876 and almost immediately people began suggesting that a school be named in his honor, though it would take many years for that to happen.

John A. Chamberlain

John A. Chamberlain was the supervisor of Manual Training in the DC School system for nearly 20 years. Chamberlain was born on October 22, 1864 in Petersham, MA and moved to Worcester when he was 7 years old. There he went to school and graduated with honors in 1883. He graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA (Now Worcester Polytechnic Institute) in 1887 with a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering. Following graduation he moved to DC to replace Walter G. Wesson as the DC School system's only instructor in Manual Training. Chamberlain rented shop space at 636 O Street and got the program running. In 1889 he was made the Director of Woodworking in the DC Schools, and the following year his title was changed to Director of Manual Training.  In that role he also oversaw business courses for black students.  He worked, along with other Worcester graduates he brought in, to establish the system of manual training in the schools and broadened the course to both high and elementary schools. In 1892, he was married to Annie Parston. Following her death, he married again, this time to Grace M. Odell in 1902.  When Congress appropriated money for McKinley Manual Training School, Chamberlain became principal. When the Manual Training program expanded in 1909, Chamberlain was made Supervisor of Manual Training for the DC public school system, a position he held until his death. During that time he helped William J. Kaup write a book on Manual Shop Practice. During World War I, he served as a drill instructor. After a brief illness, he died of heart failure on the morning of June 10, 1930 and he was buried in Petersham, MA.

Evelyn B. Fletcher

Evelyn B. Fletcher was an educator in the D.C. public schools for almost half a century, and in Christiansburg, VA before that. She was born in 1875. A reading expert, she taught demonstration lessons for new teachers and for practice students in D.C. Teachers College. She was also an ardent civic and church worker and helped to establish a fund for teachers who were not entitled to an annuity upon retirement. She died in 1960.

J. Holdsworth Gordon

James Holdsworth Gordon was a prominent DC lawyer, School Board President and community leader. He was born in Washington, DC on March 3, 1847 and lived his whole life in Georgetown. He went to school at Columbian College (George Washington University) and became a lawyer, forming a law firm with his brother William. During his 50 year career, he argued before the Supreme Court several times, most notably in Morris vs. the United States.  He was first appointed to the DC Board of Education in 1901 and served as Vice-President from 1903-1905 and president from 1905-1906. He taught law at Georgetown and was for a time president of the District Bar Association. During his son's time at Princeton he became friends with the school's President, Woodrow Wilson and the two remained friends during Wilson's presidency. Wilson strongly considered him for appointment as Commissioner of the District of Columbia in 1913. He was active in the affairs of GWU, serving as president of the alumna association, and on the GWU Board of Trustees, once from 1916-17 and again from 1919-1920. He died on Oct 21, 1924 and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Caroline Wilder Harris

Caroline Wilder Harris was a member of the DC Board of Education (1911-1914). She was heavily involved with the National Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children, serving as a board member, secretary and treasurer from 1915 until at least 1923.

Charles E. Hilton

Charles E. Hilton was a principal and administrator in the Washington, DC school system. He was born in Maine in 1829. He moved to Washington and became the first principal of the Wallach School in 1871. In 1873, the principals of the male grammar schools were made Supervising Principals for their district and so Hilton became Supervising Principal of the Third District. In September 1877 he became too ill to work and was forced to retire early. The next year, his health improved and he took on private students up until his death on September 21, 1883.

Marion Conover Hope

Marion Grace Conover Hope was an Anacostia-based social worker, community activist, youth advocate, lawyer, author and poet. She was born in 1902. In the early 1920's she went to Simmons College to study social work, where she founded the Delta Jabberwock variety show, one of the signature fundraising events of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. As a young woman, she became a lawyer and social worker and was friends with Malcolm X. She married Dr. Edward Hope (son of the civil rights leader Dr. John Hope), an engineering professor. She moved to Washington, DC in 1930 where she taught social work at Howard University and became the first director of the Southeast House, a community center inspired by Capitol Hill's Friendship House. There she developed community projects, including home improvement contests, a community newsletter, summer schools and health education groups. She was a founding member of the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum and was instrumental in designing the Anacostia Community School Project, the first decentralized school in the District. She was also a leader of the Greater Anacostia Peoples Corporation. In 1944 she wrote the book Clothing Children in Foster Homes: An Administrative Problem. In the 1950's she and her husband moved to Lebanon to teach at the American University in Beirut, but they returned to Washington by the late 1960's.  She died in 1974. She had written poetry her whole life, helping to found Boston's Saturday Evening Quill poetry club in the 1920's, and following her death, her husband had a book of her poetry, Glass Behind, published.  In 1990, Washington Highland Elementary School was renamed Ferebee-Hope Elementary School, partly in her honor.

Phillip Thomas Johnson

Dr. Phillip Thomas Johnson was an orthopedic surgeon, author and community leader who served one term on the DC Board of Education. He was born in Washington, DC on Nov 2, 1899 where he lived almost his whole life. He graduated from Howard University undergraduate and medical school in 1921 and 1924 respectively, and then did his internship in Kansas City in 1924-25 before returning to DC to do clinical work at Children's Hospital. He became one of the city's leading doctors. In 1929, he established his own practice which he kept until 1966.  He was also chief of orthopedic surgery (1930-1942) and director of the physical therapy department (1937-1942) at Freedmen's Hospital; head of the orthopedic division at the School of Medicine of Howard University (1930-1952), and in 1945 the founder of the Johnson-Robinson Clinic in Washington. He would serve as it's director from 1945 to 1966. He also worked with the Adams Private Hospital and the Howard University Health Service. As a result he became one of Washington's black leaders, serving as a consultant to the Anthony Bowen School for crippled children. He became a member of the District of Columbia Board of Education from 1949-1952. By then he'd limited his medical practice to focus on community work. He was an advocate for legal reform and ending juvenile delinquency. He started Civil Responsibility week and the Junior Civic Association. He was chairman of the DC Federation of Civic Associations. He was active in the Boy Scouts. He taught himself Braile and wrote the 1959 book "Blind Man's Bluff" about the experience. He died in Washington, DC on September 7, 1970.

Joseph R. Keene 

Joseph R. Keene was a teacher and administrator in the schools of Washington County and Washington, DC. Keene was born in Clarke County, Virginia in 1828 to an old Virginia family with several family members who had served in the American Revolution and War of 1812, including his grandfather who had been a ranking captain in the Colonial Navy.  He was educated in the common schools of Clarke and Loudoun counties in Virginia and went to the University of Virginia after working for a couple of years as a teacher. He taught in the private schools of Virginia and Maryland before moving to the District of Columbia in 1855 to teach in private schools there.  In 1865, he became principal of the new Soldier's Home School and in 1875 was given additional duties as the assistant secretary to the County School Board.  In 1876, when the school systems of the District were consolidated, Keene became Supervising Principal of the 6th Division which covered the area of former Washington County.  In 1890 when the number of divisions was increased, the 6th was divided in half and Keene became supervising principal of the western half, then called the 7th Division. In 1904, the black and white systems were separated, and Keene became supervising principal of the 7th Division's white schools. He retired in February of 1906 and died on Tuesday, June 22, 1920 at his home in Brightwood . He was buried at Rock Creek Cemetery.

Ephraim Gardner Kimball

Dr. Ephraim G. Kimball was a teacher, principal and administrator in the DC Public School System in the early part of the 20th Century. He was born in Temple, NH on August 2, 1858 and graduated from high school in Nashua in 1877. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1881 with a B.A. and became a principal of the high school in Seymour, CT. In 1883 he moved to Washington where he studied medicine at the Columbian University (George Washington University), graduating in 1884 (or 1888, reports vary). After a few years of teaching French he was named principal of the Franklin School. He was married to Ellen "Nellie" Florence Pumphrey in 1890 and their marriage lasted until her death 6 years later. He taught 8th grade for much of the 1890's. He was promoted to principal of the Wallach School prior to 1900 and remained in that job until at least 1907. By 1909 he'd become supervising principal of the 7th Division. He was married again in 1909, this time to Ada C. Hyam. He remained a supervising principal of the 7th until his retirement in 1930. He died in Washington, DC on July 17, 1939 and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery.

Jessie LaSalle

Jessie LaSalle was a school administrator in Washington, DC. She started her career as a kindergarten teacher in Cleveland, OH in the 1910's. In 1922 she was the assistant superintendent in charge of Educational Research in the white schools of Washington, DC. In 1923 she was appointed supervising principal to install the psychological tests and educational research work in the local schools, and also was placed to be in charge of the Second division. She was the assistant superintendent of Divisions 1-10 by 1928 and until at least 1946.

Katie C. Lewis

Katie C. Lewis was a teacher and principal in the DC School system. She was born in Washington, DC, the daughter of Robert R. and Jane Lewis. She graduated from the High School for Colored Children in 1878 and was presented her diploma by then President Hayes. She began teaching in the same year. By 1896, she was elevated to principal, taking charge of the Alfred Jones School.  By 1904 she was principal of the Garnet School. In 1909, she became the first principal of the Mott School. In 1916 she became the administrative principal of the Garnet-Patterson group, later the Garnet-Phelps-Patterson Group.  In 1927 she became the first principal of the Bruce School. She was an advocate for the improvement of schools in the colored systems, pushing for lunch rooms, athletic programs and playgrounds.

Hugh McCormick

Hugh McCormick was a teacher and principal in Washington in the first half of the 19th Century. He was born in Washington on June 15, 1801 to Irish immigrants.  He was the nephew of Rev. Andrew T. McCormick, a member of the board of trustees for the Eastern Free School from 1802-1816 and president from 1816-1844. Hugh became the teacher at the Eastern Free School on Capitol Hill in 1825 and stayed until the school closed in 1844 for remodeling. It was the only school on Capitol Hill at the time. He then became supervising Principal of the 4th Division in 1845 and later the principal of the 3rd District School at Navy Yard. In 1851 he resigned as principal to take a job as a clerk in the Patent Office. He died in Prince George's County on December 10, 1873 and was buried in Congressional Cemetery.

Gladys K. McGogney

Gladys K. McGogney was a humanitarian who pioneered a free lunch program for schoolchildren in the Columbia Heights area. She born in South Wales in 1880 and immigrated to America at a young age. She was married to Charles Harold McGogney prior to 1920. Between 1915 and 1920 They moved to Washington, DC from Pittsburgh. They had three children Katheryn Pearl McGogney, Charles H. McGogney, Jr and David P. McGogney.

Leon L. Perry

Leon L. Perry was a principal, supervising principal, director and school board member of the District's black school system from 1914-1946. He was educated in Washington, DC, attended Howard University and graduated from Washington Normal School in 1906 . He first taught cobbling at the Colored Industrial Home School an "atypical school for incorrigible boys" starting in 1907. He was promoted to the Superintendent of the school in 1914 and a job he held until 1924 when he became supervising principal in charge of special activities. In 1930 he was appointed Director of Division 11 of the Public Schools, a position he held until he retired days before his death in 1946.

C. Melvin Sharpe

C. Melvin Sharpe was a cartoonist, actor, Federal administrator, utilities executive and president of the D.C. Board of Education from 1949 to 1957, but he will forever be best known as the defendant in the landmark civil rights case Bolling v. Sharpe, one of the five cases bundled under the Brown v. Board of Education umbrella, and the case that ended segregation in the DC Schools. Sharpe was born on May 12, 1881 in Philadelphia, PA where he was also educated. He went to the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art before becoming a newspaper cartoonist and portrait painter. He worked for the American Bank Note Co. designing bank notes which led to a job at the Bureau of Engraving doing the same and for which he moved to Washington, DC in 1905. During WWI he was the assistant secretary of the D. C. Liberty Loan Committee. He became a community leader and man about town serving in a wide array of civic organizations including the Masons, D.C. Republican Party, Interchurch World Movement, the Steel and Copper Plates Engravers Society and the Mount Pleasant Civic Association. He also became a voice for federal employees seeking retirement benefits achieving some notoriety as one of the key advocates responsible for passage of the Civil Service Retirement Act of 1920 while also serving as treasurer of the U.S. Civil Service Retirement Association. After leaving the Bureau of Engraving he became a specialist in graphic production for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and then the field director for LaSalle Extension University. In 1923 he was hired by the Washington Railway and Electric Company as an executive assistant and then spent many years with WREC and its successor PEPCO as an executive and public relations adviser. In 1940, as he was approaching retirement with PEPCO, he was appointed a member of the D.C. Board of Education and was elevated to President of the Board in 1949 serving until his retirement in 1957. He was responsible for making DC Schools more accessible for handicapped children, for overseeing the transition to a desegregated (though not truly integrated) school system (even though he opposed it) and for obtaining the funding for the health school that would bear his name before his death. He died on December 27, 1958.

Catherine Rose Watkins

Catherine Rose Watkins was the director of kindergartens in DC and a leader of the emerging kindergarten movement at the start of the 20th century. She was born in 1866 in Washington, DC, where her father, Louis Watkins, was a postal clerk. She graduated from the Washington National and Froebel Kindergarten Normal Institute in 1894 and was hired as a kindergarten teacher in 1899. By 1904, she was the Director of Kindergartens in the District of Columbia and over the years became a leader in the American kindergarten movement, serving as president of the International Kindergarten Union from 1915 to 1917. Before retiring in 1937, she co-edited Pioneers of the Kindergarten in America, and following retirement, she co-edited a book on a similar subject: History of the Kindergarten Movement in the Southeastern States and Delaware, District of Columbia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. She continued to serve the District's school system as Director Emeritus of Kindergartens until her death in her home in Washington on July 18, 1948.

Ruth K. Webb

Alice Ruth Kincer Webb was a writer, lecturer and teacher of child education and psychology. She was supervising principal/director of the First Division of the Public Schools in Washington, D. C., in the late 1940's and served on the faculties of George Washington University and the University of Maryland.  She was born in Virginia around 1900 to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Burton Kincer. She went to school in Washington, attending the John Eaton School and the Western High School, where she played the piano and performed in theater, before graduating from Wilson Normal School in 1919. She was married to William Thayer Webb, the grandson of Senator Thomas Sterling (R-SD) on September 9, 1922 and they had two children. By 1940 she had was made a principal and by 1947 the Supervising Principal of the 1st Division. She also penned books and articles on education and child psychology. She died in December, 1948 in Washington, D.C. after a brief illness.

Martha H. Winston

Martha Harris Winston, born in 1883, was a teacher and principal in D.C. public schools for 49 years, including as principal of Charles Young elementary school from 1932 to 1964. Born in Washington, she grew up in Georgetown and graduated from Miner Elementary School. She started teaching at Briggs school and was later transferred to Garrison. She became a model teacher and member of the faculty of the first demonstration school established in the former Divisions 10-13. In 1932, she became the first principal of Young. She served on the State Department's teacher exchange program and in the summer taught at North Carolina College. She was active in civic and religious affairs and was the first woman trustee of the 19th Street Baptist Church. She died in 1969.

Senator Tim Kaine, an update to the failed VP ranking

Thanks to the 2016 election, we have a new failed VP nominee - Tim Kaine. Welcome to the club.

He debuts at #29 on the 62 person list because he remains in office - his career highlight. I also added a note about Joe Lieberman being considered for the post of FBI director, but did not move him up or down as a result.

Obamas presidency - 4th longest ever

Assuming President Obama stays in office for the next 2.5 weeks, his presidency will be the 4th longest ever, by a single second.

While there have been many presidents who served 8 years (or 2922 days to be exact), since 1972 Presidents have begun spending just a little bit longer in office thanks to leap seconds. Leap seconds have been added to years to keep the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in sync with GMT time, and since the length of a Mean Solar Day has been getting longer because the Earth's rotation has been slowing down due to tidal friction.

Since 1972 there have been 27 leap seconds. During that time 4 presidents have served 2 full terms (counting Obama) and the leap seconds have not fallen evenly among them. Reagan and Clinton each had 5, lengthening their term by 5 seconds. GWBush had 2, and Obama has had 3. Meaning that behind FDR, Reagan and Clinton are tied with the 2nd longest terms, Obama is 4th, GWBush is 5th and the other 8 2-term presidents are tied for 6th.

So if it seems like Obama accomplished more than his predecessor, it may be because he had more time to do so.

The DC residences of Hillary Clinton

This post would have been much cooler if things had gone differently. I had planned to write all about how Hillary Clinton was going to have one of the longest and most extensive histories as a DC resident of any President. She's lived in DC for all or part of 26 years over a period of 48 years.  Only LBJ and James Buchanan had spent more time in Washington prior to becoming President, and no one had a DC residency that lasted over a longer period. It's possible that Clinton was even once registered to vote in DC.

But... instead we have Donald Trump, who has never lived in DC.

Anyway, here's a history of Clinton's residency in DC, in case you're still interested.

1968 - GWU Campus 

Clinton, than Hillary Rodham, first came to DC in the summer of 1968 as part of the Wellesley Internship Program. She lived on the George Washington University Campus, though I don't know which dorm she lived in, and worked for the House Republican Conference.

1970 - Capitol Hill

Rodham returned to DC in June of 1970 to work for Marian Wright Edelman at the Washington Research Project, the precursor to the Children's Defense Fund. I know even less about where she lived then, but do know that it was somewhere on Capitol Hill.

1974 - Southwest DC

In January of 1974, Rodham came back to DC again, this time to work on the House Watergate Committee. During her 8 months in DC, she lived with Sarah Ehrman. Ehrman had met Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham back when all of them had been campaigning for George McGovern in 1972. A couple of years later, Hillary was looking for a place to stay in Washington while she worked on the House Watergate Committee and she called Ehrman for suggestions. As it happened, Ehrman’s son had just gone off to college and his room was free. Every morning, she would drive Hillary to Capitol Hill and drop her off at work.” According to the DC phone books from 1973-1975, Ehrman lived at 218 M Street, SW in a condominium that at the time would have been brand new. It is still there, but I don't know if the current owner is aware of the famous person who once lived in their 2nd bedroom.  This would make Clinton only the 2nd President to have lived in Southwest DC (I mean, if...) It's during this time that she may have registered to vote in DC.

1993-2001 The White House

It would be nearly 20 years before Clinton returned, this time as First Lady and living in the White House. Later she would live there, briefly, as a Senator, making her the only sitting Senator to live in the White House (At least one House member has done so). Had she been elected President, she would have only been the 2nd person to live in the White House before being President - the other was Madison. Bill Clinton would be the first person to live in the White House after being President (not counting people who were just slow to move out)

2001-2016 Whitehaven

Though not her official residence, as she's a resident of New York, Clinton has lived in her house at 3067 Whitehaven Street as a Senator, Secretary of State and candidate for President for almost 16 years.

Some ideas for the Constitution of New Columbia

The District of Columbia is stepping up its attempt to become a state, again.

Bowser is calling for a constitutional convention in June, and statehood on the ballot in November, petitioning the next U.S. president and Congress to declare D.C. the 51st state, even though current congressional Republicans have indicated their disinterest in the issue. Under the draft constitution announced last week, Bowser would become governor of the new state, and the city’s 13 council members would become representatives in a new state House of Delegates. 

As noted one step of that effort is writing a new state constitution, but DC is apparently just rolling the old government into a new one.

Instead, leaders should view the Constitution of the State of New Columbia as an opportunity to solve some of the problems that have been identified with the way we elect the current District Council. The current system was not one that the residents of DC chose for themselves, it was foisted upon us by Congress. Let's not behave like a colony that, having thrown off it's colonizer goes on to behave exactly like them and adopt all of their practices. Let's make our own government. So here are a few proposals to create a better legislature.

First of all, at 13 members, the legislature might be too small. Nebraska has the smallest legislature of any state with 49 members. A larger legislature would allow each member to remain closer to the people they represent and to be more focused on a smaller set of issues. To some extent, the workload of a legislature is per capita and goes down with lower population, but some work doesn't really scale down, so a larger legislature would likely be more effective.

Second, New Columbia could benefit from an upper house, or a modification of the two ways members are elected. The current method for electing legislators, first-past-the-post for single-member districts determined by geography and first-past-the-post for at-large members has resulted in a 13 member Council in which 100% of the members are in effect, if not legally, from the same party. But only 76% of District voters are members of that party. While it is certainly nice for the majority party to have complete control (and as a Democrat myself I enjoy single-party rule), there are voices that are left out of the government. Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and others deserve a proportional, but real, voice in DC government. In the current system they likely feel marginalized or ignored since the real election occurs in the primary, which they are not allowed to vote in.

When the United States constitution was written, the concept behind two houses was that they would represent different groups. The lower house would represent the people, and the upper house the states. That was abandoned with the seventeenth amendment, but the idea of two houses representing different constituencies is not without merit. Instead of the design of the US Constitution as originally written, I propose two houses that represent people grouped in different ways.

Two people might share common political interests because they live near one another, or they may share common interests based on their political philosophy. Two houses would allow these people to vote in both of these ways. By creating a lower house in which members are elected first-past-the-post by geography, and an upper house elected at-large under a proportional representation system we would give a voice to those marginalize voices. An upper house based on a proportional representation system would allow for a more diverse set of voices to be represented in the state's government. Such a system would be fairer, stimulate greater voter participation and be less captive to the effects of gerrymandering. People living in countries utilizing proportional representation express greater satisfaction with democracy, and we should want a fairer, more satisfying democracy, even if it means sharing power with people we disagree with. 

Third, New Columbia should devise a better way to fill vacancies than special elections. Special elections are costly. Furthermore, because they have the same cost to voters as general elections (in time and travel), but with less reward (since they can only vote for one office, not several as is true in a general election) they have low voter turnout, undermining the voice of those to be represented. In addition, vacancies in at-large members are temporarily filled by the central committee of the political party of the member who previously filled the office. Giving such weight to party insiders of just one party is inherently less democratic and representative than elections carried out by the general public regardles! s of party.

A better option would be to have clear lines of succession and alternates. A take-it-or-leave succession, wherein vacated offices are filled by individuals elected by the same electorate, would solve all of these problems. When an office is vacated, that office is offered to the next person in line who may either accept or decline it (within a reasonable amount of time before they decline by default). Should they accept, their office is filled in the same way. Should they decline, the vacancy is offered to the next person on the list. At the end of the list are alternates who must either accept or resign. Alternates would be elected in general elections based either on geography identical to the legislative districts or at-large. Alternates would be unpaid, without staffs, offices or even titles. They're sole responsibility would be to fill vacancies and they would have no power. But as elected office-holders, elected in a general election by the people they would represent, they would carry all the legitimacy of the person they would replace.

If the District is going to ask for greater representation on the grounds that disenfranchisement is inherently wrong and counter to the ideals of American democracy, that case becomes stronger if we aspire to create the fairest, most democratic system in the country. Comments on the draft constitution are currently being accepted at this site where you can also download the draft.

Designing the Presidential primary system to pick winners

If you live in Washington, DC (like me) and are registered as a Democrat (like most people in DC) you won't get to vote for delegates to the Presidential election until June 14th - dead last. By that time it is likely that both nominees will be known and the primaries will basically be over.

On the other hand if you lived in Iowa, you got to vote first and, if you went to the caucus, you got to  play a large role in shaping the election. This is unfair for sure, but unless all primaries and caucuses are held on the same day, someone has to go first. But it doesn't have to be Iowa and New Hampshire every year, it is less fair that it is (as opposed to rotating) and it is not in the best interest of the parties to continue to place them first.

There is nothing magical about Iowa, despite what Shoeless Joe Jackson says. They aren't first for any "reason" that someone thought up. They go first as the result of a fluke of history and the whole primary system is a modern development with the schedule developing somewhat organically. Going first gives Iowa, New Hampshire and other early states an outsized voice in choosing the next president (a long with several economic benefits) and with their highly-white electorate, it could be argued that it further disenfranchises people of color. It would be more fair to rotate the order.

Rotating the order could be done randomly, with each state taking a turn going first as part of a 230-year cycle (if we count territories and DC).  This would be fairer, but it would it be smarter? No, it would still be just as organic and devoid of thought as the current system.

If I were running one of the two political parties I'd want a system that was designed to choose someone who would win in November and then pursue the policies of my party. So, I'd make three big changes.

Get rid of caucuses - Like the standard schedule, caucuses are also unfair, but that isn't the concern here. The real issue is that they don't mimic what will happen in November the way primaries do, and the skills needed to win the caucus may not match up with the skills needed to win the general election. It's like using a basketball game to choose your quarterback. Sure, there are some elements of athleticism, confidence and drive that transfer from one sport to the other; but it would be far better to pick your starting quarterback based on how well they actually play quarterback. So, not only would I get rid of all caucuses and replace them with primaries, but I'd also try to force all primaries to be open primaries. Let's get the voice of the undecideds and cross-overs from other parties and choose someone who is palatable to the voting public and swing voters (as long as they skew in my party's direction).

Front-load the schedule with the "most important" states - Instead of starting with  Iowa and New Hampshire, states which were closer than most in the last election but are pretty small, start with a state that was even closer - the swingiest of swing states - and is larger. Start with Florida. Florida is the most important state to win. Each party should want someone who can win Florida, so make Florida primary voters your most powerful (at least in 2016).

But it doesn't always need to be Florida. What I did was to take each state's electors and divide them by the absolute value of the margin of victory from 2012, and then I arranged the schedule from that - placing all the territories last since they don't have electors. So instead of starting with Iowa and New Hampshire, we start with Florida and North Carolina - two general election battleground states. If you want a candidate who can win those states, then make them the most important test. It also allows your candidate to spend months in Florida meeting voters, instead of Iowa.

It will also, because of the bias towards bigger states, mean that the race will likely be over sooner, but give the largest number of people the opportunity to vote in meaningful primaries.

This still means that highly partisan and very small Washington, DC votes last (not counting the territories) but at least there's a good reason for it.

Spread the contests out - No more "Super Tuesdays". Make a regulated schedule that at least gives candidates some time to focus on each state. This is especially important in the beginning when candidates are visiting battleground states where they'll need to put in time in October. I arranged a schedule with two contests every week, one on Tuesday and one on Friday - giving candidates 3 days per contest minus Sundays when they hit talk shows and people are in church etc...this goes on for the first 2 and a half months, and then it goes to four contests per week. In this way the primaries can start at the beginning of February and end in mid-June just as they do now. If this were the schedule now, we'd be through only 12 states, but since they're bigger it would be more delegates.

Organizing the election in this way gives the following schedule:

Florida	2-Feb-16
North Carolina	5-Feb-16
Ohio	9-Feb-16
Pennsylvania	12-Feb-16
Virginia	16-Feb-16
Texas	19-Feb-16
California	23-Feb-16
Georgia	26-Feb-16
Michigan	1-Mar-16
Colorado	4-Mar-16
Wisconsin	8-Mar-16
Minnesota	11-Mar-16
Arizona	15-Mar-16
Illinois	18-Mar-16
Indiana	22-Mar-16
Missouri	25-Mar-16
Iowa	29-Mar-16
New York	1-Apr-16
Nevada	5-Apr-16
South Carolina	8-Apr-16
Washington	12-Apr-16
New Jersey	12-Apr-16
New Hampshire	15-Apr-16
Oregon	15-Apr-16
Tennessee	19-Apr-16
Mississippi	19-Apr-16
New Mexico	22-Apr-16
Massachusetts	22-Apr-16
Louisiana	26-Apr-16
Alabama	26-Apr-16
Connecticut	29-Apr-16
Maryland	29-Apr-16
Kentucky	3-May-16
Kansas	3-May-16
Arkansas	6-May-16
Montana	6-May-16
Alaska	10-May-16
Oklahoma	10-May-16
West Virginia	13-May-16
South Dakota	13-May-16
Delaware	17-May-16
North Dakota	17-May-16
Rhode Island	20-May-16
Maine	20-May-16
Idaho	24-May-16
Utah	24-May-16
Hawaii	27-May-16
Nebraska	27-May-16
Vermont	31-May-16
Wyoming	31-May-16
D.C.	3-Jun-16
Puerto Rico	3-Jun-16
Guam	7-Jun-16
Virgin Islands	7-Jun-16
American Samoa	10-Jun-16
NMI	10-Jun-16

Speaker Paul Ryan: Ranking the success of failed Vice-Presidential nominees

When Paul Ryan was elected speaker in October, he became one of the few people to be nominated for Vice-President, lose and then go on to significantly higher office. He's the most successful failed VP nominee since Bob Dole, who after losing in 1976 went on to be Senate Majority Leader and his party's 1996 nominee for President.

But just how impressive is this? The only way to know is to rank the post-nomination career of the failed VP nominees, which I have inexplicably done below.

A few caveats:

• The rankings consider their post-nomination career when compared to their pre-nomination career and a lot of it depends on when they peaked - not what that peak was necessarily - so going from un-elected to the House is better than remaining in the Senate.
• It also considers what they think of as success. If they're Governor and run for the Senate - that's a step up. If they're a Senator and run for Governor - that is also a step up.
• I'm not including people who were Vice-President but ran again and lost, because being Vice-President would carry more cache than not. But the post-failed re-election careers of those former VPs can be ranked (1) Walter Mondale, (2) Charles Curtis, (3) Charles Fairbanks, (4) Dan Quayle (5) Mike Pence and (6) Adlai Stevenson I.
• The list also doesn't include the following: Albert Gallatin and Thomas Eagleton, because they withdrew from the race after being nominated but before the election; John Edgar Howard, who was never nominated and never ran - despite which he did quite well; James S. Sherman who died between his nomination and the election; or Murray Butler who replaced Sherman, but was never really the nominee.

Continued to seek office, but failed and/or reputation diminished

#63 John Edwards (2004) - John Edwards was riding high in 2004. He'd gone from a little-known 1-term Senator to runner-up in the 2004 Democratic Primary and was the party's nominee for Vice-President. But then came 2008. He entered the race as one of the top candidates on the Democratic side, but never caught fire. That year, he won fewer states, got fewer votes and fewer delegates and ended his campaign a month earlier than in 2004. Still, he reportedly made the short of list of VP nominees for Obama. Then he was rocked by scandal. Reports of an extramarital affair had started in late 2007 and by the summer of 2008 they had reached a head.  This eliminated him from consideration for any roll in the Obama campaign or cabinet. He had cheated on his sick wife, fathered a child, and clumsily attempted to cover it up. Furthermore he was accused of using more than $1 million of campaign funds to cover up his affair. He was indicted on six felony charges and forced to pay $2.1 million back to the FEC. He was found not guilty on one charge, while the jury failed to reach a verdict on the others. The case was dropped and Edwards returned to life as a lawyer - though now a politically toxic one. Scandalized, sanctioned, reviled and indicted - it's had to see anyone taking the bottom spot from him without actually being convicted of a crime.

#62 Curtis LeMay (1968) - The former Air Force general left the Republican party to support George Wallace and was subsequently named his running mate. After the election, his political career (he had earlier been approached by Republicans as a possible Senate candidate) was over and his public reputation was significantly diminished. Though he did not share Wallace's pro-segregation positions, running with him left LeMay forever attached to them and LeMay was often assumed to have shared his racist views, despite the evidence to the contrary.

#61 Andrew Jackson Donelson (1856)  The former ambassador was Fillmore's running mate on the American Party ticket. Afterwards he was involved in the Constitutional Union party and went to their nominating convention in 1860. But after the Civil Was he was distrusted by the south because of his opposition to secession and the north because of his support of the war. During the war, he was briefly arrested by the Confederates, though the charges were deemed frivolous and he was released.

#60 Joseph Lane (1860) An Oregonian who ran on the pro-slavery Southern Democrat ticket with John Breckenridge, Lane returned to the Senate where he espoused pro-secession positions. As these ideas were unpopular in Oregon, his political career was over and he retired from the Senate in 1861. He retired to his ranch in Oregon where some think he kept a slave until the late 1870's.

#59 Geraldine Ferraro (1984) The first woman ever nominated on a major party ticket, Geraldine Ferraro - unlike Paul Ryan - had to give up her House seat in order to make her run for Vice-President in 1984. Despite being relatively young at the time and with continued political ambitions, it would be the last time she would hold elective office. She made two failed runs for the senate, failing to win the primary both times.  She did serve three years as a member of the United States delegation to United Nations Commission on Human Rights, making her an ambassador and she spent time as a political commentator, but her promising career never really got back on track.

#58 Amos Ellmaker (1832) Pennsylvania's former Attorney General who turned down an offer to be James Monroe's Secretary of War was on the losing ticket of the Anti-Masonic party in 1832. Two years later he ran for the Senate and lost to James Buchanan, after which he retired from politics.

#57 Sargent Shriver (1972) Shriver served as the replacement VP candidate, after Thomas Eagleton resigned, on the 1972 Democratic ticket with George McGovern. By then, the high points of his political career (ambassador, Peace Corps Director, OEO Director) were behind him. He made a run for the presidency in 1976, but he finished far back in the pack, placing in the top 2 in only the Vermont primary. He then retired from politics. Though his post-nomination political career was a bust, his long service as President and then Chairman of the Board of the Special Olympics likely enhanced his reputation.

Retired from Public Life

#56 Allen G. Thurman (1888) - Grover Cleveland ran for president three times, with three different running mates. His running mate during his second, and only losing, run was the retired Senator Allen G. Thurman. After the election, Thurman went back into retirement, and was notably was not chosen to be Cleveland's running mate in 1892, which is why he ranks slightly below the rest in this category.

#49-55 (tie) Richard Stockton (1820), Benjamin Gratz Brown (1872), William H. English (1880), James G. Field (1892),  Henry G. Davis (1904), William E. Miller (1964), James Stockdale (1992) - For each of these men, the campaign for Vice-President marked the end of their political career. They either retired, returned to retirement or returned to their previous professions, apparently by choice.  [Stockton, interestingly, ran without a running mate, as the Federalist Party did not have a nominee for president in 1820] Miller perhaps stands out because after his run he was featured in one of the first "Do you know me?" commercials for American Express.

#48 William O. Butler (1848) - Butler went in to retirement following his loss, but was offered the office of Governor of Nebraska in 1855, a job he turned down. He also attended the 1861 Peace Conference in Washington.

Career high came prior to nomination

#47 Edward Everett (1860) - The Constitutional Union Party nominee for Vice-President in 1860, Everett's career high point came at the end of Millard Fillmore's presidency when he replaced the recently deceased Daniel Webster as Secretary of State. After 1860, Everett remained in a state of semi-retirement working to avoid the Civil War via the Crittenden Compromise and then supporting the Union War effort. Most famously, he gave the featured speech at Gettysburg, which was followed by a much shorter and famous speech by Abraham Lincoln.

#46 Jack Kemp (1996) - After losing the 1996 election, the Republican nominee and former HUD Secretary served on numerous boards and commissions including the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on Russia and also considered a run for president in 2000. He held various public roles dealing with Russia and poverty and was heavily involved in the McCain campaign before his untimely death.

#45 Theodore Frelinghuysen (1844) - Henry Clay's 1844 running mate, the former Senator Frelingjuysen returned to his job as President of NYU after defeat and later became President of Rutgers.

#44 Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr (1960) - Nixon's first running mate, the former Senator and U.N. ambassador served the next three presidents as an ambassador to South Vietnam, West Germany, at-large and to the Holy See. He also came in 4th place in the 1964 Republican presidential primaries, winning three states as a write-in candidate, without entering the race or campaigning.

#43 Richard Rush (1828) Richard Rush, had been Secretary of the Treasury under John Q. Adams and he became Adams' running mate because Adams' vice-president John C. Calhoun chose to run with Adams' opponent Andrew Jackson (in 1824, Calhoun had been the running mate for both candidates). After the election, he spent time as a low-level diplomat before serving as Polk's Minister to France.

#42 William L. Dayton (1856) The Republican Party's 1st Vice-Presidential nominee, Dayton had been a Senator but after his 1856 loss with Fremont, he was the Attorney General of New Jersey and then Lincoln's Minister to France.

#41 William A. Graham (1852) Winfield Scott's running mate on the 1852 Whig ticket, Graham had been a Senator, Governor and Secretary of the Navy. After the 1852 election he returned to the State Senate in North Carolina and was later elected to the Confederate Senate at the end of the Confederacy. In 1866 he was re-elected to the United States Senate but, because North Caroline had not been readmitted, he was never seated. Remained active in national matters until his death.

#40 Herschel Johnson (1860) Stephen Douglas' running mate for the northern wing of the Democratic Party, Johnson had been both a Governor of and Senator from Georgia. After the 1860 election, he became a Senator in the Confederacy, despite opposing secession and then a US Senator, though, like Graham he was never seated. He then served as a circuit court judge until his death.

#39 Nathaniel Macon (1824) Macon was a replacement candidate for Vice-President when William Campbell withdrew. He had been Speaker of the House 15 years earlier, but had later moved to the Senate where he would remain after his failed run for the VP seat. He was later President pro tempore of the Senate.

Nomination was during career high point

#38 Fielding L. Wright (1948) Strom Thurmond's States Rights Party running mate in 1948, Fielding Wright returned to his office as Governor of Mississippi until he was term-limited out of office. He returned to the practice of law in 1952 and made another run for Governor, but finished third in the 1955 Democratic primary, thus missing the runoff. He died the next spring.

#37 Charles W. Bryan (1924) The brother of William Jennings Bryan (making them the only brothers to be nominated for President and Vice-President), Bryan was the running mate of John W. Davis on the 1924 Democratic ticket. In order to run for VP, Bryan did not run for re-election as Governor of Nebraska. He did run, unsuccessfully, in 1826 and 1828 and then won and retained the office in 1830 and 1832. He then served as Mayor of Lincoln, a job he'd held previously in 1915-17 and made one last, unsuccessful, run for Governor in 1838.

#36 John W. Bricker (1944) Dewey's first running mate, Bricker was unable to run for Governor at the same time, but two years later he was elected to the Senate where he served for 12 years before losing the seat to Stephen Young in 1958.

#35 Joe Lieberman (2000) After missing the vice-presidency by only a few hundred votes in Florida, Lieberman remained in the Senate. He sought the Democratic Party nomination in 2004, but after starting out well in the polls, failed to win any delegates, mustering only a single 2nd place finish.. In 2006, he lost the Democratic primary to retain his Senate seat, but was able to run as an independent and keep it. He was reportedly John McCain's first choice for Vice-President on the 2008 Republican ticket, but was passed over for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. He chose not to run for his senate seat in 2012 and retired from politics. He has spent his time working as a lawyer and lobbyist and serving on the boards of various causes. In 2017, he was reportedly considered as a replacement for James Comey as FBI director but then passed over by Trump. His last official action was the introduction of Betsy DeVos at her Secretary of Education confirmation hearings.

#34 Burton K. Wheeler (1924) Democrat Wheeler was the running mate of Republican Robert La Follette, Sr. on the Progressive Party ticket.  He returned to the senate where he served another 24 years before losing the 1946 primary to Leif Erikson (the less famous one).

#33 Jared Ingersoll (1812) - Ingersoll was DeWitt Clinton's running mate on the 1812 Democratic-Republican ticket (though in many ways it was really the Federalist ticket. It's complicated). He spent a decade as Pennsylvania's Attorney General before the nomination and another four years in that job afterward. He spent the last year of his life as the presiding judge on Philadelphia's district court.

#32 Whitelaw Reid (1892) Benjamin Harrison's 2nd VP nominee Reid had been his ambassador to France. 13 years later he became Teddy Roosevelt's ambassador to the UK and continued in that role under Taft until his death in 1912.

#31 Henry Lee (1832) Lee, an economist who never held office, was John Floyd's running mate on the Independent Democrat ticket in 1832. They won only 1 state, Floyd's home state of South Carolina. Following the election, Lee returned to his prior career as a writer and merchant.

#30 Arthur Sewell (1896) One of William Jennings Bryan's running mates in Bryan's first run, Sewell was a wealthy shipbuilder who went back to shipbuilding and being wealthy after his loss and then died a few years later. Often considered one of the worst nominees in history.

#29 John A. Logan (1884) - After losing the 1884 election with his running mate James G. Blaine by a little more than 1000 votes, Logan returned to the Senate where he served 2 more years before dying in his home in Columbia Heights in Washington, DC. Nearby Logan Circle is named for him.

#28 Charles L. McNary (1940) - At the time of his nomination he was Senate Minority Leader, a job he held until his death almost four year later in February 1944. Like Logan, had he been elected he would not have lived to serve out his term. His running mate Wendell Wilkie also would have died in office (Oct 1944), meaning that if they had beaten Roosevelt and Wallace, Sam Rayburn would have become President of the United States, though only for 3 months.

#27 George Washington Julian (1852, 1878) The Free Soil Party's vice-presidential candidate in 1852, Julian was a political newcomer at the time. He'd spent just four years in the Indiana state legislature as a Whig and a single term as a US Representative. He earned no electoral college votes in 1852, but makes this list because of 1878. After his loss in 1852, he joined the Republican Party and in 1860 he was returned to the House of Representatives where he served for 10 years before losing re-nomination. In 1872, now with the Liberal Republican party, he received 5 electoral votes for Vice-President when the party's presidential nominee Horace Greeley died between the election and the electoral college vote.  He finished his public career, now as a Democrat, by serving for four years as the surveyor general of New Mexico.

#26 Nathan Sanford (1824) Sanford, the former NY Senator and then Chancellor of New York was re-elected to the Senate 2 years after his loss in 1824. He served six more years in the Senate before retiring from politics.

#25 Estes Kefauver (1956) After having the 1952 Presidential nomination taken from him and finishing 2nd in 1956, Kefauver beat out John F. Kennedy for the vice-presidential nomination, but the ticket lost to Eisenhower/Nixon. Though early polling showed him the favorite for the 1960 Democratic nomination for President, Kefauver chose not to run for a 3rd time. He spent the last 7 years of his life in the Senate.

#24 Tim Kaine (2016) Following the shocking loss of the Clinton/Kaine ticket, Kaine returned to the Senate. By 2024 he had served eight more years in the Senate. (Up from 26th in 2020)

#23 John Sparkman (1952) Adlai Stevenson's running mate in 1952, he was not chosen for the 1956 ballot, in part because he signed the "Southern Manifesto" and Tennessee's Senators Estes Kefauver and Albert Gore, Sr. had not. Sparkman nonetheless served another 26 years in the Senate, chairing 3 committees, before retiring in 1979 as the longest serving senator in Alabama history.

#22  John Sergeant (1832) Henry Clay's Republican running mate in 1832, Sergeant had twice been voted out of Congress and was out of office when nominated. He returned to the practice of law, but 4 years later was returned to Congress for a 3rd time. He was president of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1838 and then resigned from Congress in 1841. He turned down cabinet and diplomatic positions and  was nearly nominated to be Clay's running mate again in 1844.

Career Peaked after Nomination

#21 Sarah Palin (2008) Palin's post nomination career has been an up and down affair to say the least. Not long after losing, she resigned as the Governor of Alaska and became a media personality with numerous public speaking, on-air pundit and reality TV show opportunities which paid her quite well. Though she has had much success endorsing candidates, most notably of 2010 tea party candidates and Donald Trump, and teased a White House run in 2012, her star power began to diminish as Trump's increased. After endorsing Trump in 2016, she lost a high-profile defamation case, got divorced, lost two races for Alaska's House seat and stopped generating as much media attention. (Dropped from 16th in 2020)

#20 Francis Granger (1836) Granger was in the House when he was named the nominee of the northern part of the Whig Party in 1836. He had to give up his House seat to run in that election. He came in 2nd in the Electoral College, but since Virginia's electors refused to vote for Richard Johnson, the race had to be decided in the country's only contingent election for Vice-President, which he lost. Later, he was reelected to the House two more times before serving for 6 months as Postmaster General (a job his father held for a longer time than anyone else in U.S. history). He was then elected to congress again in a special election before leaving elected office to become a party leader.

#19 Rufus King (1804 and 1808) The only two-time loser of the Vice-Presidency on this list,  King went on from being the bottom half of the losing Federalist ticket with Pinkney to being the top half in 1816 (and 1812, though he was never officially the party's nominee, which had none that year). In doing so he became the only person to run on four major party tickets without winning once. He later returned to the Senate and was again made Minister to Great Britain - jobs he'd held prior to 1804.

#18 Charles Coatsworth Pinkney (1800) The first of five people to lose the election for Vice-President and then go on to win their party's nomination for President, Pinkney was the Federalist party's nominee in 1804 and 1808 (losing both times).

#17 Charles Francis Adams (1848) The son and grandson of presidents, Charles Francis Adams was practically royalty when he ran for vice-president on the Free Soil ticket in 1848, but his political experience was limited to the Massachusetts state legislature. 10 years after his failed run for VP, Adams was elected to the US House from his father's district. After being re-elected, he resigned to serve as Minister to the United Kingdom for 7 years and was later the U.S. arbiter of the "Alabama claims."

#16 Joseph Taylor Robinson (1928) At the time of his nomination, Robinson was Senate Minority leader, but in 1933, following his loss, he was elevated to Majority Leader when the Democrats took control of the Senate. Together with FDR he led in the creation of  much of the New Deal, until he was found dead in 1937 in his apartment across the street from the Senate.

#15 Thomas E. Watson (1896) Watson was William Jennings Bryan's running mate on the Populist ticket in 1896 (Sewall (#29) was his nominee on the Democratic ticket). Watson became the Populist party candidate for president in 1904, and then in 1920, after rejoining the Democratic Party, was elected to the Senate where he served until his death 2 years later.

#14 Francis P. Blair, Jr. (1868) Blair was a former Republican congressman and Union General when he was chosen as the Democratic nominee for Vice-President. Blair is the odd vice-presidential candidate believed to have cost his party the election, in his case because of the stark racist nature of his campaign speeches. Nonetheless, two years after that loss, he was elected to the United States Senate to fill a seat made empty via resignation. Less than 2 years later he was paralyzed by a stroke and as a result lost election to a full term in 1873. As an act of charity, he was appointed state superintendent of insurance to provide him with an income, and then died in 1875.

#13 Hiram Johnson (1912) Teddy Roosevelt's running mate on the Progressive Party ticket, Johnson remained the Governor of California until the end of his term. He was re-elected in 1914 and then ran successfully for the Senate in 1916 where he would remain until his death in 1945. He switched to the Republican Party and in 1920 sought the party's nomination for President, finishing third at the Convention (and 6th for Vice-President). He finished 3rd again in 1924. In the Senate he was an influential leader who crossed party lines to help FDR pass much of the New Deal.

#12 Edmund Muskie (1968) Senator Muskie emerged from the losing 1968 campaign in which he was the Democrats Vice-Presidential nominee as a popular politician and the leading candidate for the party's nomination. He won both the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries (in the newly formed primary system) but as a result of a letter, later discovered to be a forgery created by the Nixon campaign, in which Muskie was accused of making disparaging remarks about French-Canadians and of the press conference, in which it appeared to some in the press that Muskie had shed a tear (he claimed it was melting snow since it was held outside in a snow storm), his presidential campaign collapsed. In 1980 he became Secretary of State, and filled that role until the end of President Carter's term in 1981.

#11  Lloyd Bentson (1988) The Texas Senator lost the Vice-Presidency in 1988, but - due to Texas law - was able to run for, and keep, his Senate seat. Four years later he was tapped by Bill Clinton as the Secretary of the Treasury where he served for nearly two years before retiring. 

#10 George J. Pendleton (1864)  Rep. Pendleton had a bad year in 1864. He was on the bottom half of the losing presidential ticket and he lost his house seat too. He then proceeded to lose a race for his old house seat in 1866, his party's presidential nomination in 1868 (after leading for the first 15 ballots), and governor of Ohio in 1869.  In 1878, after 14 years out of office, he was elected to the United States Senate, where he led passage of the Pendleton Act that ended the spoils system. This law was unpopular among members of his party and cost him re-election but he was appointed Envoy to Germany when his term was completed, a job he served in until shortly before his death.

#9 John W. Kern (1908) At the time of his nomination for VP in 1908, he was a lawyer who'd previously spent several years as Indianapolis' City Solicitor and made two failed runs for Governor. He was elected to the Senate 2 years leader and became the equivalent of the Senate Majority Leader (though that term was not in use at the time). He served only 1 term and retired due to poor health. He died 5 months after leaving office.

#8 Frank Knox (1936) One of Teddy Roosevelt's former Rough Riders, Knox had never held office when he became Alf Landon's running mate in 1936. As an internationalist and a supporter of a strong military, Franklin Roosevelt tapped him to be Secretary of the Navy in 1940 as he tried to build a bi-partisan coalition in preparation for war. Knox served through most of the war - until his death in April 1944.

#7  Aaron Burr (1796) Technically, Burr was a candidate for President in 1796 as there were no tickets or running mates, but it was the intention of the Democratic-Republican party that all but one elector would cast their votes for Jefferson and Burr. The other elector would vote for Jefferson and someone other than Burr, thus making Jefferson president and Burr vice-president. Both parties meant to use this strategy but it failed, resulting in the President and Vice-President being from opposite parties and it failed again in 1800 resulting in a tie between Jefferson and Burr. Nonetheless, after Burr lost in 1796 he continued his political career serving 2 years in the New York state assembly. In 1800 he was elected Vice-President, becoming one of only three people to win the Vice-Presidency on the 2nd try. And probably the only person to ever go from the state legislature to Vice-President. He was nearly elected president since he and Jefferson tied in the electoral college, forcing a Contingency Election, one of only two ever for the Presidency. This was "Peak Burr" on a rapid and tragic collapse. He quickly fell out of favor with President Jefferson and, when it was clear he would not be on the ballot, he ran for governor of New York in 1804, while still Vice-President, and lost. As a direct result of this loss he dueled and killed Alexander Hamilton and was charged with murder in both New Jersey and New York (though he was never tried). While still Vice-President mind you, he went into hiding. Things just kept getting worse, as he was charged and tried (wrongly, most people agree) with treason after leaving office. Found not guilty, he then had to flee the country for four years to avoid his creditors. Finally he was kicked out of England and returned to New York. At this point, his life turned around somewhat. He returned to the practice of law; found a second family; adopted two boys (one possibly his own); and ,at the age of 77, he remarried, this time to a wealthy widow 19 years younger than him (though they were separated only a few months later).

#6 Paul Ryan (2012) Mitt Romney's running mate and the first house member nominated since Ferraro, Ryan didn't have to risk his house seat to run. Three years after failing to become President of the Senate, he became Speaker of the House - the only failed VP to do so. But he only lasted 3 years. He resigned and since has served on the board of Fox Corporation, as a guest lecturer at Notre Dame and as a head of delegation to Taipei for Donald Trump. 

#5 Thomas A. Hendricks (1876) Hendricks was the Democratic Party's losing nominee in the controversial election of 1876. He left office as Governor of Indiana the following January and went into a state of semi-retirement. In 1880, the Democrats wanted to nominate him for vice-president again, but he declined for health reasons (he suffered a stroke and lost the use of one foot as a result. By 1882 he could no longer stand).  In 1884, as a salute to the ticket of 1876 and to unify the party, he was again the party's nominee for vice-president, and this time he won. He is the last person to win the vice-presidency on the 2nd try. Unfortunately, he died in office only 8 months later and his death is often one reason attributed to Cleveland's loss in the 1888 contest.  In that race, Cleveleand won more votes than his opponent, but lost the electoral college in part because he couldn't carry Hendrick's home state of Indiana.  Cleveland lost Indiana by only ~2,400 votes.

#4 Bob Dole (1976) The losing half of the Ford-Dole ticket, Dole would go on to serve in the Senate for nearly 20 more years - and seek the Presidency in every open election for the rest of that time. He more success in the former than he did the latter.  He became Senate Minority Leader in 1987 and Majority Leader in 1995. After finishing last (11th) among all declared candidates in the 1980 Republican Presidential Primary, he was the runner-up in 1988 and finally the party nominee in 1996. He resigned his seat in the Senate to run and though he was the last nominee to have served in World War II, he lost the race and went into retirement. He is the last failed VP to later be nominated for President.

#3 Earl Warren (1948) Warren was the Republican candidate for VP in 1948 as the bottom half of the "Dewey Defeats Truman" ticket. He remained governor of California and four years later made a run at the GOP presidential nomination coming in 3rd. In Eisenhower's first year, Chief Justice Fred Vinson died and Warren was tapped as his replacement. He's the only failed VP to serve on the Supreme Court. He as Chief Justice for 16 years and died five years after retiring.

#2 John Tyler (1836) In 1836, the newly-formed Whig Party was not organized enough to have a convention and settle on one ticket. Instead they ran at least five tickets with Tyler as VP on three of them. Nonetheless he only "won" three states. No candidate for VP won a majority that year and the VP had to be decided in a contingent election, but Tyler only finished 3rd and thus missed it. But in 1840, Tyler came back to fill in the bottom half of the "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" ticket that was swept into office, making Tyler the 2nd person to win the Vice-Presidency on his 2nd Try and the first since the Twelfth Amendment. His running mate Harrison was much older. Shortly after taking office he died of illness (though not from a cold caught during his inauguration as is so often stated) and Tyler became President. After leaving office he returned to public life as sponsor and chairman of the Virginia Peace Convention in Washington, DC that was called in an effort to avoid the Civil War. When War broke out anyway. Tyler served on the convention between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Confederate States of America that allowed Virginia to join, signed the Ordinance of Secession and was chosen as a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Conference, serving for five months before his death in 1862. He was also elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died a few weeks before it's first session.

The Greatest Of All Time

#1 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1920) FDR was by far the most successful failed VP ever, and there is hardly reason to believe he would be. At that point he'd won exactly one race, for the New York State Senate and served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I. A year after his loss he was stricken with polio. But in 1928 he was elected to the first of two terms as Governor of New York, a feat which on its own would place him around #7 on this list. Then, in 1932 he became the only failed VP to ever be elected President (Tyler ascended). And just to pile on, he did it 3 more times and is now ranked among the greatest American presidents. Of failed VPs, he is truly the GOAT.

*********

It's hard to imagine how someone could unseat Roosevelt. Even if someone did the unprecedented and served 6 years as VP and 10 as President, that might not be enough. It would probably take a combination of 2 terms as President and many years as Speaker, Majority Leader or Justice. Perhaps Pope or Secretary-General might suffice. Maybe 5 Super Bowl wins. Maybe.

Of the living failed veeps, Ryan is young and still highly-regarded. He could move up this list. As could Kaine. Palin still has a chance too - though less likely. I see no comeback for Edwards.