A Virginia school board voted early Friday to reinstate the Confederate military leader names of two public schools.
The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 in favor of restoring the names, reversing the board’s decision four years ago to get rid of them in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The move to bring back the association with figures who led pro-enslavement states during the Civil War might be the first action of its kind taken anywhere in the U.S.
As a result of the vote, Mountain View High School will once again be known as Stonewall Jackson High School, while Honey Run Elementary School will revert to Ashby-Lee Elementary School—a name honoring Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.
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The names of Confederate leaders and other symbols associated were removed from schools and other public facilities around the country in the wake of furious protests sparked by a Minneapolis police officer’s murder of Floyd in 2020. The Shenandoah County School Board similarly took action and changed its own schools’ names as part of a resolution to condemn racism and affirm the district’s “commitment to an inclusive school environment,” according to CNN.
The board previously considered a motion to restore the names in 2022, but the motion failed to pass in a tied vote.
The Coalition for Better Schools, a conservative group, had continued to advocate for the names to be reinstated.
“We understand that the decision to rename these schools was made in response to discussions surrounding Confederate symbols,” the group wrote to the board in an April 3 letter. “However, we believe that revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community’s heritage and respect the wishes of the majority.”
