Posted on 12/17/2013 12:38:23 PM PST by nikos1121
A Florida high school that for 54 years has borne the name of a leader of the Ku Klux Klan is to be renamed, officials said.
The Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Fla., where more than half the students are black, will change its name from that of the man who allegedly was the Ku Klux Klan's first grand wizard.
A new name will be proposed in January.
"We recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history," said Constance Hall, a board member for the Duval County school, which was founded 54 years ago.
"For too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect, and equality," Hall said in a statement.
Forrest was an innovative cavalry leader and a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He joined the Ku Klux Klan after the war; there remains a dispute over his role.
With its roots in the Civil War era, the Ku Klux Klan has long been associated with hooded, white-robed night riders who menaced blacks with cross burnings, lynchings and other acts of violence.
The honoring of Confederate heroes and emblems has been a divisive issue in the United States, with proponents saying it pays homage to regional history and opponents saying it amounts to racism.
Memphis, Tenn., in February this year dropped Confederate names from three city parks. One was named after Forrest.
Omotayo Richmond, who moved to Jacksonville from New York, wrote in a Change.org petition that garnered more than 160,000 signatures in support of changing the school's name that doing so would go toward healing "so much racial division" in Florida.
"African American Jacksonville students shouldn't have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year," Richmond wrote.
The 1,300-student public school, which became racially integrated in 1971, had voted some five years ago to keep the name, but those officials had been replaced, the petition said.
Uh, I think he was a cavalry officer in the Confederate Army and THAT is why the school was named for him.
I am really happy they are making such SIGNIFICANT contributions towards the education of kids. (Sarcasm).
Sometimes the Educational Establishment is DEFINTELY NOT
“The Fustist with the Mostist.”
Anyone who remembers Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest first as the Klan’s founder is nothing more than a bigot. Forrest was first and foremost a cavalry commander of the highest order, in a league with JEB Stuart and Joe Wheeler. And Forrest was completely self-taught.
Saint Skittles Academy ?
Robert C. Byrd High School
Clarksburg, WV 26301
Robert E. Byrd Hangem High?
Are they going to rename everything in West Virginia that is named after the Democrat KKK a-hole Robert Byrd?
So much racial division has been healed! /s
Another school named after a Democrat racist.
I think of Nathan Bedford Forrest as a Confederate general and a great one at that. I never think of him starting the Klan.
BTW, didn’t the Klan start as gentleman’s club type of thing? Just a club where some Southern gentleman could meet and socialize together. And then only later became a political organization? Seems like I remember that from the history of the Klan.
“That school was renamed after an African king. Which presumeably helped the self esteem and academic achievement of the largely black student body at the former George Washington school.”
As long as the descendants of the Founding Fathers and subsequent the European settlers who built this country don’t breed, expect this nonsense to proceed (at a faster pace). Blacks themselves aren’t keeping pace with the Hispanics, either; they’ll end up in urban schools that are 65% Hispanic named after Fidel Castor, Che Guevarra, and Athualpa...
I’ll bet that’ll get those GPAs up. Smart move!
Forrest joined the Klan at the invitation of General Gordon (Gov. of GA) to be a leader to guide their aims. The purpose was a protective military organization at the state level. Stanton’s carpetbaggers, corrupt Freedmen’s bureaus, scalawags and property thieves of every stripe along with the ex-Union veteran’s groups- the Loyal Leagues and the Grand Army of the Republic- these were the object of the original Klan, protecting what remained of status quo ownership along with political pressure on freed slaves. The Northern military groups being fraternal Union military organizations who organized to continue the war by other means against the South, and generally for political and personal profit and gain—again at the expense of the freed slaves. The original Klan was disbanded in 1869 by Forrest. What came after was the creation of lesser people and appealed to poor bigots, Democrats and unions in multiple post war depressions and FDR’s Depression— it is this klan that is quite disgusting, and which is seized on by every knee jerk liberal in the stereotype they need.
The man who used the quite appropriate moniker “whigger” to describe a phenomena of cultural melding.
The black white schism must be maintained— to achieve and carry out the CPUSA playbook list. This was done in the 20s and 30s as well.
Yes. In 1869, having achieved it’s chartered goals.
Re: “whigger”
Did you mean to reply to my post 20, as opposed to 7?
Well, both great posts— and people need to keep hammering this. Had to agree on many levels on the “whigger” comment having had family affected by the affectation of the music and language of rap and crack- which made no sense whatsoever.
Byrd btw was born in NC and moved to WV. People have little understanding of the times and the politics, the threads that tie.
A good example is that a-hole Eminem. And we’re talking about street trash thug types here, not ordinary working class people.
Ping - for your information.
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