Anonymous wrote:
I will says that Lee and Stuart end up being unusual cases. If we were further South, it would not be a big issue. But FCPS, in its infinite wisdom, named these schools after Brown v. board as a protest against integration. In other words, the were named less for southern pride, and more to make minority kids feel unwelcome. That's a real problem that FCPS needs to address.
I don't think there is any evidence that is true. It is a myth created by those wanting the name change.
Hmm. The same School Board member who moved to change the name of what had been called "Munson Hill HS" in FCPS planning documents for years to "JEB Stuart HS" in 1958 was on the record as against integration, after the Brown decision came out. He also had changed the name of a School Board committee called the "Committee on Desegregation" to the "Segregation Committee" to appease opponents of integration.
At a minimum, the names were picked by a group of white men who opposed integration and gave no thought as to whether the name would be offensive to minority and other students who would eventually attend the school. Notably, even though the Brown decision came out in 1954, the federal courts were still ordering Fairfax County a decade later to move more quickly to integrate FCPS. Time to repudiate this hateful legacy and come up with a better name for the school.