School board in Virginia votes to restore Confederate names ( www.reuters.com )

The education board for a rural Virginia county voted early on Friday to restore the names of Confederate generals stripped from two schools in 2020, making the mostly white, Republican district the first in the U.S. to take such an action.

By a 5-1 vote, the Shenandoah County board overturned its 2020 decision that stripped a public high school and elementary school of their original names honoring three military leaders of the pro-slavery South in the Civil War.

Under the board's action, Mountain View High School will again become known as Stonewall Jackson High, while Honey Run Elementary School will revert to the name Ashby Lee Elementary.

The names belong to some of the most well-known military leaders of the Confederacy. Robert E. Lee was commander of the Army of Northern Virginia; Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was a Confederate infantry general, and Turner Ashby was a rebel cavalry commander. All of them were Virginians.

card797 ,

Next on the school board docket. Segregation: pros and cons.

athos77 ,

I'm reading Erik Larsen's new book on the start of the civil war, and he's pointing our some interesting things. Like in letters and dispatches, the southerners rarely used the word 'slaves', preferring to use 'hands' or 'Negroes'. They thought of themselves as a kind of nobility, even going so far as to have competitions where they'd try to lance rings from horseback, or decapitate a dummy from horseback - medieval knight stuff. They came up with all kinds of justifications as to why slavery was okay - they were a superior race, the negroes were used to it and didn't mind, they were saving the slaves from the economic uncertainty of the job market, etc. One guy had a section in his handbook on how to whip his slaves so that they were still able to work afterward.

They were taught to be proud of all this. After defeat, they immediately came up with the Lost Cause hypothesis and started teaching that, because they were honorable, noble men and the northerners just didn't understand Southern people or their culture. They've never truly understood or admitted they were wrong, and they keep pressing that mindset into each of the next generations as they arrive.

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

If anyone is curious about the “states rights” that the south went to war over, please read the declarations of causes given when they seceded.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states

They all say they want slaves, and they all say it right at the top.

Example: Mississippi, sentence two:

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun

We don’t how to guess about what their reasons for secession were. They told us, in writing.

billiam0202 ,

the Coalition for Better Schools said it believed “that revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community’s heritage"

HERITAGE OF WHAT, YOU RACIST FUCKING ASSHOLES?

Tulitaa ,

Traitors doing traitorous things.

themeatbridge ,

Bravely standing up and saying "We're unashamed to be bigots!"

bazus1 ,

https://quotefancy.com/media/wallpaper/3840x2160/1700770-Mahatma-Gandhi-Quote-Be-the-change-you-wish-to-see-in-the-world.jpg

MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown ,

Jackson died from being shot by his own men. Is that the kind of heritage we want a celebrated in a school?

Delusional ,

Why don't they just rename it to "I wish black people were still slaves." Because that's basically what they're doing.

Olhonestjim ,

They don't want to say "black people."

AbidanYre , (edited )

They could always use the n-word.

Edit: they, not I

Baahb ,

Did you Freudian slip out yourself?

AbidanYre ,

Stupid fingers

Olhonestjim ,

Literally anytime they want to. It's a free country. Just not without consequences.

They want to be able to say that word with nobody calling them pieces of shit. In fact, they want us all to think they're cool for saying it.

disguy_ovahea ,

They should bring back the real confederate flag too. Y’know, the one that’s all white?

themeatbridge ,

Some people might think you're just referencing the white flag of surrender, but one of the early flags was mostly white. Often called the Stainless Banner, or the White Man's Flag, it was also called the Jackson Flag because it was used to drape Stonewall Jackson's casket. Eventually it was replaced, because it was easily confused with a flag of surrender, and because it was really hard to keep clean what with all the people wiping their asses with it.

Bipta ,

Let's bring back Sherman's march to the sea while we're at it.

Know_not_Scotty_does ,

Atlanta is mostly blue now so we should probably update the route.

raynethackery ,

Why don't they just come out and say that they want to own slaves again?

henfredemars ,

I got a great new name for the Stonewall high sports team: The Losers!

MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown ,

I think The Rioteers would be good team name for a Stonewall High.

Eigerloft ,

The Transients?

girlfreddy OP ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

I'm partial to "The Seditionists" myself.

inb4_FoundTheVegan ,
@inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world avatar

I'm shocked and disappointed, but not surprised.

Clasm ,

Should have named them after Taco Bell & Doritos, honoring their work in bringing us the Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco, which has been around for 3x the time that the Confederacy lasted and arguably has had more impact.

The Doritos Taco has been around since 2012.

the Confederacy, or the South, was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Sure, why not? We're heading toward Idiocracy anyway.

Just watched that movie today with my 13-year-old, by the way. She was both amused and horrified since she could see a hell of a lot of parallels to 2024...

some_guy ,

This literally made my eyes bug out. Repubs are embracing their racism in new and exciting ways. Wtf

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