The Virginia NAACP and five students are suing a school board that voted last month to restore the names of two schools previously named for Confederate leaders, saying the decision creates a discriminatory educational environment for Black students.
The federal complaint filed Tuesday outlines a history of segregation and discrimination in Shenandoah County and says the school board’s recent decision denies Black students an equal opportunity to education by forcing them to attend a school named after Confederate leaders.
The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 last month to restore the names of Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School. A previous board agreed in 2020 to change the names to Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School amid a reckoning on race in Virginia and across the country after the killing of George Floyd.
The schools are named for Confederate military leaders Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.
Board member Thomas Streett, who voted to restore the Confederate names, said during the meeting that the 2020 decision was a “knee-jerk reaction” that showed a lack of “loyalty” to the community. A group called the Coalition for Better Schools had urged the board to bring back the earlier names, saying it was “essential to honor our community’s heritage.”
But on Tuesday, some community members criticized that choice.
“When students walk through the halls of renamed Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, they will do so with inescapable reminders of Confederate legacies that enslaved and discriminated against African-descended people. This community deserves better,” the Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of the NAACP Virginia State Conference, said in a statement about the lawsuit.
School board chair Dennis Barlow did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The vote last month was the Shenandoah board’s second attempt to restore the Confederate names. An earlier push failed in a 3-3 tie in 2022 after voters replaced half of the board with new candidates.
(c) Washington Post
