In June, 2025, Dr. J. Mark Souther was contacted by the Cleveland Heights–University Heights City School District to get his input in the Monticello Middle School renaming process.

He told them the extraordinary story of the Baumgardner family. Dr. Luther O. Baumgardner, a Black physician who migrated from Clarendon County, SC (where one of the five cases subsumed into Brown v. Board of Education originated) to Cleveland in 1921 after finishing medical school at Howard University, his wife Myrtle, and their young daughters Gretchen and Jane moved in 1938 to a house on Wilmar Road (just off Mayfield Rd.) and suffered a bombing attack one night after they had held a dinner party. They refused to be intimidated into selling, and indeed Jane and Gretchen went on to attend Monticello and graduate from Heights High, graduate from college and graduate school in Social Work, and launch highly successful careers of their own. Dr. Baumgardner was still living in the once-bombed Cleveland Heights house he bought until he passed away in 1976.

In July, 2025, the board presented his suggestion and two other finalists at the school board meeting, and the board voted unanimously to change the name to Baumgardner.

This is a clear example of how community-centered histories can lead to impactful change because of his presented work in talks at CPL and Heights Libraries.

Related article on Cleveland.com 
Video of the CH-UH board meeting regarding the Monticello Middle School renaming