Name dropping: should school names that honor supporters of slavery be changed?

0 Comments | Current Events, Dec 8, 2008

Some Southern schools are caught in a battle between the present and the past. The problem is their Civil War--era names. Take Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, for example. The Florida school was named after a Confederate general (right) who fought for slavery and led the Ku Klux Klan.

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This year, the Duval County School Board considered changing Forrest High's name to Firestone High, for the street the school sits on. The board heard from people on both sides. It ultimately rejected the idea in a 5-2 vote on November 3. The board's two African American members voted for the name change.

Forrest High's name was no accident, and that's part of the problem, says Texas historian Court Carney. In the 1950s, several schools were named after Confederate leaders in a backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended school segregation, the practice of sending white students and black students to separate schools. "Race is often at the center of these debates," he says.

Supporters of dropping the names say people who fought for slavery don't deserve to be honored. Opponents say removing Civil War--era lames is like erasing history.

END THE INBULT

Keeping Confederate leaders' names on schools sends the wrong message to children, says Ernestine Harrison, a teacher in Hampton, Va. Harrison petitioned to rename the city's Jefferson Davis Middle School. Davis was the leader of the Confederacy during the Civil War. "If I were a kid, especially a teenager, I would be ashamed to tell a friend that I went to Jefferson Davis," Harrison told The Associated Press. "Those guys fought for slavery."

Forrest High senior Cardel Brown says he feels the same way. The school's name is insulting, Brown told The Florida Times-Union. "You might as well name schools after [terrorist leader Osama] bin Laden ... and the rest of the people who did Something bad to America," he said.

The problem isn't just who Forrest was. It's also why the school was named for him, says Betty Burney, who leads the Duval County School Board. "The Daughters of the Confederacy and the 1958 school board members saw the name as a way to 'thumb its nose' at the 1954 Brown [v. Board of Education] case for desegregation."

DON'T DITCH HISTORY

Taking the drastic step of changing the schools' names is like trying to wipe out history, opponents say. They say Confederates like Forrest and Davis have to be thought of in the context of the Civil War--they were "Sons of the South" who fought bravely. "People don't take into consideration the times. It's a Southern thing," L. A. Hardee, a board member of the Museum of Southern History in Jacksonville, Fla., told the AP.

The school board members who voted to keep Forrest High's name argued that most students didn't want the change and that the school faced more pressing issues, such as improving academics, according to Burney. Dropping Confederate names is a slippery slope, says Duval County Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals. Where do you draw the line? he asked the Times-Union. "Would it include all people who fought for the South?"

NAME DROPPING

Get Talking

Ask students: Is your school named after someone? Who? If it were named after someone who had fought to preserve slavery, would you want to change the name? Why?

Notes Behind the News

* In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) challenged a Kansas law that allowed for racially segregated schools in certain cities. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black students and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. The Court ruled unanimously that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and that racial segregation "violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution" (tinyurl.com/amend14). The decision paved the way for school integration. Learn more about the desegregation case and ruling at tinyurl.com/brown11.

* Dozens of U.S. schools are named for Confederate leaders.

The National Center for Education Statistics lists 19 Robert E. Lee schools, nine Stonewall Jacksons, and five Jefferson Davises. In New Orleans, several schools that had been named for slave owners have since been renamed. One is George Washington Elementary School, which was renamed for Dr. Charles Richard Drew, a black surgeon who organized blood banks during World War II. Even in Lee's own Virginia, a Boy Scout council changed its name from Robert E. Lee to Heart of Virginia.

Doing More

Have students create a list of Civil War-era figures from both sides: Confederacy and Union. Ask students: What was each side fighting for? Should schools ever be named for supporters of slavery? How do you feel about schools named for U.S. presidents who owned slaves?