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Educators Debate Efforts to Rename Schools (named after Confederates)(historical assassination)
Yahoo! News ^ | December 26, 2003 | STEVE SZKOTAK

Posted on 12/26/2003 9:21:31 PM PST by El Conservador

HAMPTON, Va. - At Jefferson Davis Middle School, a civil war of words is being waged over a petition drive to erase the name of the slave-owning Confederate president from the school.

Opinion is mixed, and it's not necessarily along racial lines.

"If it had been up to Robert E. Lee, these kids wouldn't be going to school as they are today," said civil rights leader Julian Bond, now a history professor at the University of Virginia. "They can't help but wonder about honoring a man who wanted to keep them in servitude."

That argument isn't accepted universally among Southern black educators, including the school superintendent in Petersburg, where about 80 percent of the 36,000 residents are black. Three schools carry the names of Confederates.

"It's not the name on the outside of the building that negatively affects the attitudes of the students inside," Superintendent Lloyd Hamlin said. "If the attitudes outside of the building are acceptable, then the name is immaterial."

It is difficult to say how many public schools in the 11 former Confederate states are named for Civil War leaders from the South. Among the more notable names, the National Center for Education Statistics lists 19 Robert E. Lees, nine Stonewall Jacksons and five Davises. J.E.B. Stuart, Turner Ashby, George Edward Pickett each have at least one school bearing their name.

For some, these men who defended a system that allowed slavery should not be memorialized on public schools where thousands of black children are educated.

The symbols and the names of the Confederacy remain powerful reminders of the South's history of slavery and the war to end it. States, communities and institutions continue to debate what is a proper display of that heritage.

Students in South Carolina have been punished for wearing Confederate flag T-shirts to school. The town of Clarksdale, Miss., permanently lowered the state flag — which has a Confederate emblem in one corner — to recognize "the pain and suffering it has symbolized for many years." And the Richmond-area Boy Scouts dropped Lee's name from its council this year.

In the most sweeping change, the Orleans Parish School Board in Louisiana gave new names to schools once named for historical figures who owned slaves. George Washington Elementary School was renamed for Dr. Charles Richard Drew, a black surgeon who organized blood banks during World War II.

In Gadsden, Ala., however, officials have resisted efforts to rename a middle school named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, an early backer of the Ku Klux Klan. And a school board in Kentucky adopted a new dress code that eliminates bans on provocative symbols including the Confederate flag.

The naming of schools after Confederate figures is particularly rich with symbolism because of the South's slow move to integrate. Many schools were named after the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) ruled segregated schools unconstitutional in 1954 but before the departure of whites left many inner city schools majority black.

"Now whites are complaining that they are changing the name of Stonewall Jackson High School," says Fitzhugh Brundage, a University of North Carolina history professor who is writing a book on "black and white memory from the Civil War."

While far from always the case, the naming of some public schools after Confederate generals was a parting shot to blacks emerging from segregated schools.

"It was an attempt to blend the past with the present but holding onto a romanticized past," Jennings Wagoner, a U.Va. scholar on the history of education, said of the practice of naming schools after Lee, Jackson and others. "It was also a time of extreme racism."

Erenestine Harrison, who launched the petition drive to rename Jefferson Davis Middle School, attended Hampton's segregated public schools. She moved north in 1967 and was struck by the school names upon her return seven years ago to Hampton, a city at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Educated as a psychologist, she has worked in the city schools as a substitute teacher.

"If I were a kid, especially a teenager, I would be ashamed to tell a friend that I went to Jefferson Davis," said Harrison, 55. "Basically, those guys fought for slavery."

But Henry Kidd, former Virginia commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (news - web sites), sees efforts by Harrison and others as a "chipping away, piece by piece, at our history."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Alabama; US: Arkansas; US: Florida; US: Georgia; US: Kentucky; US: Louisiana; US: Mississippi; US: North Carolina; US: South Carolina; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: confederacy; diversity; dixie; education; educators; educrats; heritage; jeffdavis; multiculturalism; pc; purge; renaming; schools
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This is Orwell on steroids...
1 posted on 12/26/2003 9:21:32 PM PST by El Conservador
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: El Conservador
George Washington Elementary School was renamed for Dr. Charles Richard Drew, a black surgeon who organized blood banks during World War II.

It's not like George Washington was the first president or a general in the Revolution or anything; he was just another slave-owner, so his name should be erased from history.
3 posted on 12/26/2003 9:37:10 PM PST by FoxInSocks
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To: FoxInSocks
Here's an idea. Rename GWES after a different figure in science: GEORGE WASHINGTON Carver.
4 posted on 12/26/2003 9:40:45 PM PST by FoxInSocks
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To: El Conservador
It is very sad.
5 posted on 12/26/2003 9:41:31 PM PST by BenLurkin (Socialism is Slavery)
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To: El Conservador
Okay, most every city in the USA has a MLK, Jr highway running through it. Why not just change to name of the entire country to MLK, Jr. just please all these folks?

I am offended because I don't like my streets being named after a philandering communist. MLK,Jr. name should be banned. <./sarcasm -- just making a point about all this PC BS.
6 posted on 12/26/2003 9:44:25 PM PST by boycott
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To: El Conservador
I knew a lot of black Washingtons and Jeffersons, many other former slaves took the same name as their former owners as a surname. I have never known a black Lincoln...

Make of that what you will...

7 posted on 12/26/2003 9:47:26 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (This tagline manufactured in the U.S.A.)
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To: BenLurkin
Yes, but when our history becomes a fable about a war being fought to free slaves, this is to be expected.
8 posted on 12/26/2003 9:49:09 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (This tagline manufactured in the U.S.A.)
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To: El Conservador
"They can't help but wonder about honoring a man who wanted to keep them in servitude." ..................



Damn fools.

Does this mean we can erase MLK from buildings because he was a Marxist?

Should we erase RFK from the Dep. of Justice because he broke wiretapping laws?

9 posted on 12/26/2003 11:24:51 PM PST by Finalapproach29er ("Don't shoot Mongo, you'll only make him mad.")
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To: Smokin' Joe
"Yes, but when our history becomes a fable about a war being fought to free slaves, this is to be expected."

You are quite correct that freeing slaves was not the primary, or initial, motivation of the Federal government in the War Between the States. However, it is also a fable to deny that the primary motivation for Southern secession was the protection of the institution of slavery and the protection of their agrarian economy.

Many in the Confederate military had admirable records before the WBTS (or, as I like to call it, the War for Southern Independence). Many in the Confederate military made a difficult choice between their home State and their Country. It should be remembered that the concept of the American "nation" was not as understood by those who lived in the 1850's as those who lived after the WBTS.

Slavery was an unfortunate aspect of the Nation's history, but to fail to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of the slave-holding Founding Fathers, Framers of the Constitution, and other Southerners who lived prior to the WBTS smacks of political correctness.

Those today who rail against everything related to the CSA not only misunderstand the history of the country, but they also forget the intent of Lincoln's second inaugural address.

10 posted on 12/27/2003 12:06:24 AM PST by capitan_refugio
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To: capitan_refugio
Perhaps you can tell me why slave-holding is only recognized as a white, southern, activity. There were free blacks and free black slaveholders, and not just in the South. Northerners owned slaves as well, but in the final reckoning, children are being taught that it was white Southerners fighting to keep slaves picking cotton who decided to opt out of the union just to keep their slaves.

Not only is the picture presented highly inaccurate, but it is not presented in light of the pre WBTS political climate, nor within the social context of the day.

Socialist teachers and their dupes are being used to further foment divisiveness in our culture by teaching our children a grossly oversimplified fable in lieu of history.

The root of the war is economic, slaves were only a part of the overall economic reasons the South chose to secede.

That Robert E. Lee, West Point educated and offered command of the Army of the Potomac, chose instead to fight for Virginia, perhaps knowing full well that his family lands would be forfeit (now Arlington National Cemetary) bespeaks the conflict of loyalties present. That he is reviled by some as a traitor only indicates which side won.

Many patriots were hanged as traitors during the Revolution, and are only well-remembered because their side ultimately prevailed.

11 posted on 12/27/2003 1:21:15 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (This tagline manufactured in the U.S.A.)
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To: FoxInSocks
<> Isn't this sort of... 'reverse' descrimination?
12 posted on 12/27/2003 2:10:43 AM PST by tj005
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To: Smokin' Joe
<> Well, thats the part the revisionists play, they dont mention that slavery was only one issue of the civil war, but alas, we cannot clutter such things with facts..
13 posted on 12/27/2003 2:14:09 AM PST by tj005
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To: Smokin' Joe
Gotta agree with that one too...
14 posted on 12/27/2003 2:17:59 AM PST by tj005
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To: tj005
To teach other than fables requires facts, honesty, knowledge, and thought.

To do anything other than gloss over the reasons for this nation's formative conflicts would require teaching why those conflicts occurred.

To do so would expose the current government for what it is--way off base, Constitutionally bankrupt, thieving, and totalitarian compared with the rule of the British.

Economics alone would spark revolt when students learned that the colonists revolted over a total tax burden of three percent..

With empahsis on self-esteem, and the denial that the guy who cleans the toilet is as important as the guy who designs it (Ya want a dirty toilet?), the loss of self-esteem in finding out that most of our ancestors milked cows, picked (whatever crop), and farmed for subsistence or even profit, whether they owned the land or not just might be devastating.

It is far easier to present a fable of 'haves' and 'have-nots' engaged in some pseudo-proletarian clash. It fits better with the Socialism being infiltrated into every aspect of our education, our workplace, and our lives.

15 posted on 12/27/2003 2:27:05 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (This tagline manufactured in the U.S.A.)
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To: El Conservador
In Gadsden, Ala., however, officials have resisted efforts to rename a middle school named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, an early backer of the Ku Klux Klan.

Then they need to change all the places named after Robert Byrd in West Virginia!

16 posted on 12/27/2003 6:49:19 AM PST by Alissa
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To: capitan_refugio
It should be remembered that the concept of the American "nation" was not as understood by those who lived in the 1850's as those who lived after the WBTS.

That's correct and it is difficult for us to set aside the mindset of 21st Century America in order to understand the mindset of ante-bellum America.

Twenty years from now, the European Union could have a civil war over the issue of whether Britain, Poland and Spain have a right to seceed from the European Union.

What is the "correct" answer to that issue?

Can Britain, Spain and Poland freely withdraw from a Union they freely entered?

Does signing a European Constitution that never addresses the issue of secession destroy forever the concept of Britain, Spain and Poland as sovereign states?

Should the Polish General in command of the European Union Army stay in Germany to lead the E.U. Army into "rebel" Poland or should he resign his European Union commission and return to "independent" Poland to lead the Polish Army in defense of the land of his birth?

In America of 1860, the "correct" answers to the questions of the day were as uncertain as the "correct" answers to the hypothetical questions above.

17 posted on 12/27/2003 7:28:35 AM PST by Polybius
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To: El Conservador
In San Antonio, they renamed a Jefferson Davis Middle School after S.J. Davis, a local black school board member. Mr. Davis said, "Joke's on them - 'S.J.' stands for 'Stonewall Jackson' Davis!"
18 posted on 12/27/2003 9:59:14 AM PST by Tax-chick (Some people say that Life is the thing, but I prefer reading.)
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To: Tax-chick
Lee Davis High School Confederate Alumni BUMP
19 posted on 12/27/2003 10:07:24 AM PST by Rutabega (the only good thing about living in Europe was finding out that we captured Saddam two hours early!)
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To: El Conservador
This would not be an issue if there were a separation between education and state.
20 posted on 12/27/2003 11:19:23 AM PST by Holden Magroin
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