Petition to Change Names of Stuart and Lee HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many union officers and politicians were abolitionists? How many believed in desegregation? Should those be removed too?

How many folks who live in rich, liberal enclaves are secretly racist? Should they be interrogated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is this mission to erase all memories of the civil war? It happened. Justice won, and we all learned from it.

Should we also petition that they shut down the Holocaust museum because we want to forget that too?

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana

There is this side of history, yes.

However, I think that the fact that these schools were named after Confederate generals only when ordered to desegregate speaks volumes (I have not researched the timing of the naming, and am assuming the history explained in the petition is accurate). These schools were not named to honor the Confederate generals. They were named to signal, loudly, to black students and their parents that they were not welcome, and to deter them from attending. And it was probably at least somewhat effective. It would take a brave parent to send a black child to a school that had just been renamed after a Confederate general. I wouldn't be able to put my kid in the middle of that s*&%storm.

I don't think that aspect of history should be erased - in fact, I think it should be more widely known that so many institutions took such indirect steps to maintain segregation. But there is a difference between whitewashing history and preserving a name meant to intimidate and scare.

That might make sense if anyone was currently intimidated or scared or if the initiator of the petition was affected by any of this, but that is not the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is this mission to erase all memories of the civil war? It happened. Justice won, and we all learned from it.

Should we also petition that they shut down the Holocaust museum because we want to forget that too?

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana

There is this side of history, yes.

However, I think that the fact that these schools were named after Confederate generals only when ordered to desegregate speaks volumes (I have not researched the timing of the naming, and am assuming the history explained in the petition is accurate). These schools were not named to honor the Confederate generals. They were named to signal, loudly, to black students and their parents that they were not welcome, and to deter them from attending. And it was probably at least somewhat effective. It would take a brave parent to send a black child to a school that had just been renamed after a Confederate general. I wouldn't be able to put my kid in the middle of that s*&%storm.

I don't think that aspect of history should be erased - in fact, I think it should be more widely known that so many institutions took such indirect steps to maintain segregation. But there is a difference between whitewashing history and preserving a name meant to intimidate and scare.

That might make sense if anyone was currently intimidated or scared or if the initiator of the petition was affected by any of this, but that is not the case.

Are you a 13 or 14 year old black child or the parent of one? How do you know what it feels like to walk through those doors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This town is too pc. Soon everything will be no name street or no name high school. Maybe the highschool formally known as? Ridunkulous.

Everyone is losing their minds.

+1. And they are too stupid/ disinterested to focus on real problems. This is meaningless feel good nonsense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is this mission to erase all memories of the civil war? It happened. Justice won, and we all learned from it.

Should we also petition that they shut down the Holocaust museum because we want to forget that too?

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana

There is this side of history, yes.

However, I think that the fact that these schools were named after Confederate generals only when ordered to desegregate speaks volumes (I have not researched the timing of the naming, and am assuming the history explained in the petition is accurate). These schools were not named to honor the Confederate generals. They were named to signal, loudly, to black students and their parents that they were not welcome, and to deter them from attending. And it was probably at least somewhat effective. It would take a brave parent to send a black child to a school that had just been renamed after a Confederate general. I wouldn't be able to put my kid in the middle of that s*&%storm.

I don't think that aspect of history should be erased - in fact, I think it should be more widely known that so many institutions took such indirect steps to maintain segregation. But there is a difference between whitewashing history and preserving a name meant to intimidate and scare.

That might make sense if anyone was currently intimidated or scared or if the initiator of the petition was affected by any of this, but that is not the case.

Are you a 13 or 14 year old black child or the parent of one? How do you know what it feels like to walk through those doors?

Has anyone asked the students at those schools?
I agree that the author of the petition is unlikely to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Madison and Jefferson were both slave owners. Oops! Better add those schools to the petition too.

If you start changing every highway, park, school, town, etc. that is named after someone who owned slaves, you will have to change a whole lot of the names in Virginia (including Fairfax who had about 200 slaves).

Yes. That was my point. Changing the names is silly.

[Anonymous]

Is this worth the additional expense? It is a matter of more than just new stationery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this worth the additional expense? It is a matter of more than just new stationery.

Florida remamed Nathan Bedford Forrest HS, and these schools should be renamed as well. Of course it is more expensive to rename a school than lower a flag. But that's on FCPS for giving the schools inappropriate names when they were opened. No black child should have to attend a school named after a Confederate general by pro-segregationalists who weren't happy with the Supreme Court. It has sent the wrong message for years and it is past time to fix it.

[Anonymous]

Curious that no one has mentioned the third FCPS high school in the petition to change the name, Woodson.

[Anonymous]

What is this mission to erase all memories of the civil war? It happened. Justice won, and we all learned from it.

Should we also petition that they shut down the Holocaust museum because we want to forget that too?

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana


There is this side of history, yes.

However, I think that the fact that these schools were named after Confederate generals only when ordered to desegregate speaks volumes (I have not researched the timing of the naming, and am assuming the history explained in the petition is accurate). These schools were not named to honor the Confederate generals. They were named to signal, loudly, to black students and their parents that they were not welcome, and to deter them from attending. And it was probably at least somewhat effective. It would take a brave parent to send a black child to a school that had just been renamed after a Confederate general. I wouldn't be able to put my kid in the middle of that s*&%storm.

I don't think that aspect of history should be erased - in fact, I think it should be more widely known that so many institutions took such indirect steps to maintain segregation. But there is a difference between whitewashing history and preserving a name meant to intimidate and scare.


That might make sense if anyone was currently intimidated or scared or if the initiator of the petition was affected by any of this, but that is not the case.


+1000 This is the best post on here. I taught at Lee High School. It is now a hugely immigrant school. It is very welcoming of all minorities. What matters is the environment of the school and that is what affects the students. And it is a decent school with caring teachers and many programs. The name Lee is way down the list of things that matter to the students there. I don't think people should be foaming at the mouth over this stuff. We have much more important things to discuss. And I am no fan of the "Old South". I am a Northerner who transplanted here. I do think Robert E. Lee qualifies as a person who was not completely evil. At the very least he can be recognized as a brilliant military strategist who graduated first in his class at West Point. Lincoln admired him and had asked him to be his general. Yes, there was slavery, but this is all a part of history and history is messy. Maybe there is a message in all of that for all of us. Nobody at Lee HS is whitewashing the history of Lee. There is no intimidation or scariness at Lee HS that is resulting from the name of the school.

[Anonymous]

I think it's kind of absurdly hilarious that Lee high school is now majority-minority. Like, take that, Confederates, your name is now associated with a majority Black school!

[Anonymous]

I think it's kind of absurdly hilarious that Lee high school is now majority-minority. Like, take that, Confederates, your name is now associated with a majority Black school!

Just for the record, it is not "majority Black". It is very diverse and includes hispanics, Asians, Africans (from the continent), African Americans, and European Americans, ME caucasians, etc. It is definitely majority minority though.

And lots of schools are now majority minority all over the USA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we going to change the name of Lee highway, while we're at it?

Sure, why not?

How about anything with the word "Dixie" in it?

Don't forget. George Washinton was a slave owner too.

And the Lee family was prominent for generations and did a lot to develop the Virginia economy. It isn't named for Robert E.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we going to change the name of Lee highway, while we're at it?

Sure, why not?

How about anything with the word "Dixie" in it?

Don't forget. George Washinton was a slave owner too.

And the Lee family was prominent for generations and did a lot to develop the Virginia economy. It isn't named for Robert E.

Yes, it is.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Highway

[Anonymous]

What were these schools names before they were changed in 1959?