Virginia school board votes to restore names of Confederate leaders to schools ( www.nbcnews.com )

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, a school board in northern Virginia stripped the names of Confederate military figures from two schools. Four years later, the board approved a motion to restore the names.

The school board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, early Friday approved a proposal that will restore the names of Confederate military leaders to two public schools.

The measure, which passed 5-1, reverses a previous board’s decision in 2020 to change the names of schools that had been linked to Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby, three men who led the pro-slavery Southern states during the Civil War. 

Mountain View High School will go back to the name Stonewall Jackson High School. Honey Run Elementary School will go back to the name Ashby-Lee Elementary School.

The board stripped their names after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, fueling a national racial reckoning. The calls for racial justice and equity inspired some communities to remove Confederate symbolism and statues of Confederate generals.

But in Shenandoah County, the conservative group Coalition for Better Schools petitioned school officials to reinstate the names of Jackson, Lee and Ashby. “We believe that revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community’s heritage and respect the wishes of the majority,” the coalition wrote in an April 3 letter to the board, according to a copy posted online.

AbidanYre ,

Government buildings should not be named after enemies of the state.

MehBlah ,

Or losers.

eran_morad ,

Johnson really fucked up post-war. From the perspective of those who saw the South’s principles as abhorrent and detestable. I’m sure he thought he did just fine, tho.

anon6789 ,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I see people blame Trump, Bush Jr, Reagan, and Nixon for our current political woes, and while not incorrect, how our country canceled Reconstruction and made peace with those who tore our nation apart to be cruel to those they felt were subhuman and gave them back their property and power is a slap in the face to what we supposedly stand for and is disrespectful to all those that died in the war and were formally enslaved before the war and systematically enslaved after it. We just acted like the whole thing never happened. And people wonder why that sentiment of racism, classism, and entitlement still persists...

We had a chance to do something, and we chose to just forget. Stories like this just show we still choose to forget, or worse yet, some people do remember, because they benefited in the long run.

ZapBeebz_ ,

Reagan and Co. are really responsible for creating and stoking the "Christian" right in this country, and they're a huge (and often intertwined with the racist South) problem.

anon6789 ,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I was born during the Reagan era, so a bit too young to know much about it from the time, so it never ceases to amaze me how much he helped facilitate the backwards slide of our society. I think his administration was so effective as it was the combined efforts made by conservatives from what they learned by what happened with Nixon. The conservative "think tanks," the creation of purposefully biased media platforms, the Powell Memorandum, courting the evangelicals, etc. were all effective both then and to this day. There is a ton we can all still learn about from this era.

My thoughts are just that surely much of this could have been prevented if we had taken better action when we had half of American aristocracy backed into a corner, and instead of doing anything about it, we just collectively said, "well, it looks like you guys learned your lesson, so here's all your stuff back, just don't call them slaves anymore and try to be discrete with your racism for a few decades." Our ancestors defended this country, won, but then allowed 90% of the causes of the war to persist. To think they wouldn't try to claw back the rest of what they had was naive and the "peace" gained by pardoning these people responsible has led to over a century of misery, especially to the people that had suffered most prior to the war, was not worth the cost of us not harshly correcting our national politics when we had the chance.

Seeing Lee and others argue for peace and moving on is no surprise. He was the perpetrator, and the loser of the fight. Why wouldn't he want the world to forget about that? Who would expect the losing enemy general to call for harsh punishment for their actions? It's the same reason why these Nixon, Reagan, and Bush officials are willing to publicly bash Trump when he's not looking like a sure winner. It takes the attention off of what they got away with, and if they keep us mad at Trump, that less time to focus on their actions.

This is why while all this news ticks me off and makes me unhappy, I still try to keep learning about it and at least staying aware of who is saying what. Just because they people are "agreeing" with us now doesn't mean they really support what they are saying, and it doesn't make up for the actions they took against the American people.

barsquid ,

Not hanging those traitors was one of the largest fuckups in the nation's history.

eran_morad ,

100%

callouscomic ,

But while he was alive, Lee stressed his belief that the country should move past the war. He swore allegiance to the Union and publicly decried southern separatism, whether militant or symbolic. “It's often forgotten that Lee himself, after the Civil War, opposed monuments, specifically Confederate war monuments.”

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation/robert-e-lee-opposed-confederate-monuments

Boozilla ,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

TFW the historical leader of the traitors is more patriotic than the modern republican voter.

SturgiesYrFase ,
@SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml avatar

I would recommend listening to the Behind the Bastards episodes on the guy.

anon6789 ,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

As a fellow BtB fan, that was my first thought as well. No one should give a damn what Lee said regardless of what side he appears to be taking. He was a terrible person, a terrible general, and only ever seemed to do what he felt would benefit him the most personally.

It's the same reason I get annoyed seeing media portray Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, John Bolton, and Anthony Scaramucci, etc as a source of valid, balanced, and impartial viewpoints. We all saw what you guys did when you had control, but some of us don't forget as quickly as others. You're only concerned for your reputation and legacy and to preserve another chance to do what you did all over again.

Never listen to a traitor, me boys!

cmbabul ,

The Mooch is a piece of shit no doubt, but he’s on a different tier of evil than those other three ghouls

anon6789 ,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Very true, but his time in an official position was limited to a matter of days. I was just trying to think of the names that jumped out at me as still being regularly in the spotlight for no good reason. His platform should have ended as quickly as it began, but media is still giving him a voice over better options, and he's still a symptom of a greater issue in how people get news.

callouscomic ,

Anyways, the guy they're holding up on a pedestal literally said not to. Everything else you said is a completely separate thing.

dohpaz42 ,
@dohpaz42@lemmy.world avatar

There is no honor in anything relating to pro-slavery. Fuck those ignorant bastards.

SturgiesYrFase ,
@SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml avatar

"It's not hate, it's heritage!" The literal words said to my Asian wife driving through Virginia with her friend and their cousins seeing confederate flags painted on barn roofs. And yeah, it's a heritage of fucking pro-slavery. It's like when people say it was about economic policy...Well yeah, the Confederate economy was built on Slavery, so you're not wrong....but still not in the way you think you're right.

meleecrits ,
@meleecrits@lemmy.world avatar

Never forget that ever state that seceded listed slavery, specifically superiority over black people as the reason for secession, codified slavery into law, and the CSA had a federal law stating that no state within the Confederacy could ever be allowed to become a free state.

Kinda puts a damper on the "states rights" argument.

ShepherdPie ,

Funny how their entire heritage is based around a bunch of guys who committed treason and only existed for 4-5 years over 150 years ago.

uhmbah ,

"respect the wishes of the majority"

ffs

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

They left the word 'white' out of that sentence.

Neato ,
@Neato@ttrpg.network avatar

The tyranny of the majority more like. Fuck those racist traitors.

iAmTheTot ,
@iAmTheTot@kbin.social avatar

Except for when the majority didn't vote for their desired leader.

meleecrits ,
@meleecrits@lemmy.world avatar

My "heritage" involves kicking the shit out of their "heritage." Perhaps I should honor mine?

PugJesus ,
@PugJesus@kbin.social avatar

Uncle Sherman approves

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Jackson and Lee were prominent, competent military leaders. Who is Ashby, though?

googles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_Ashby

Some cavalry commander under Jackson. He doesn't sound like that big a deal.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I'm guessing he's a local boy where that school is.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

That's a thought.

checks

I mean, same general region, northern Virginia, but not really his place of birth. Something like a hundred miles away.

It sounds like he was one of a number of people who got appointed via political connections.

I'd think that if one wanted to choose a Confederate military leader who did well, there'd be a lot of better choices. Like, the North-South division ran right next to Washington, DC, due to the Maryland/Virginia split, Richmond wasn't that far away, and so northern Virginia was the location of a lot of important Civil War stuff and my impression is that generally, Confederate forces in the east performed better than those in the west. So one would think that the northern Virginia region would have a lot of prominent options.

If you wanted to pick a Confederate cavalry commander, I'd think that I'd pick someone like J. E. B. Stuart, who really did outperform.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._E._B._Stuart

Like his intimate friend, Stonewall Jackson, General J. E. B. Stuart was a legendary figure and is considered one of the greatest cavalry commanders in American history. His friend from his federal army days, Union Major General John Sedgwick, said that Stuart was "the greatest cavalry officer ever foaled in America."[83]

eran_morad ,

Jackson and Lee were traitors.

carl_dungeon ,

I’m just glad they never messed with the Adolf Hitler Center for Diversity.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Their Confederate "heritage" lasted five years. The Obama administration lasted eight years. Maybe they need a Barack Hussein Obama elementary school to celebrate their heritage.

mynachmadarch ,

Wikipedia has a list of places named after each president. I see zero southern schools named after Obama. You might be on to something.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_educational_institutions_named_after_presidents_of_the_United_States

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I love that the only entry under Trump is Trump University.

Nixon gets two real schools.

termain ,

Obama Magnet school in Jackson, MS?

https://www.jackson.k12.ms.us/Obama

mynachmadarch ,

I should have been more clear I meant public schools. Sorry.

ChicoSuave ,

Now now, that heritage was established after five years and has run for generations. Their heritage is picking fights they can't win, quitting because it wasn't easy, and being a bitch about it for generations.

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