The Virginia NAACP sued a county school board on Tuesday restoration of Confederate military names to two schools, accusing them of espousing segregationist values and subjecting black students to a racially discriminatory educational environment.
The Shenandoah County school board voted 5-1 last month to change the name of Mountain View High School back to Stonewall Jackson High School and that of Honey Run Elementary to Ashby Lee Elementary. The vote reversed a 2020 decision to remove the original names, against the backdrop of nationwide protests over racial injustice.
The federal lawsuit states that black students make up less than 3% of the school system’s population. The plaintiffs include five students — identified by their initials and described as black, white and biracial — and their parents.
The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment to school board chairman Dennis C. Barlow.
The NAACP wrote that students “will be forced against their will to endorse the violent defense of slavery pursued by the Confederacy, and the symbolism these images have in the modern white supremacist movement.”
For example, the lawsuit stated that an incoming freshman, who is black, would be forced to play sports as a member of the Stonewall Jackson “Generals.” And she would have to wear a uniform “decorated with a name and logo that symbolizes hatred, white supremacy and mass resistance to integration.”
If the student does not participate fully in school sports or other activities, she may miss out on future opportunities, including playing college sports, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg.
The NAACP claims that the Southern school names violate students’ First Amendment rights, including the right “not to express an opinion with which any person disagrees.” It also cites the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which “prohibits racial discrimination in state-sponsored institutions.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which maintains a database of more than 2,000 Confederate memorials across the country, was not aware of another case in which a school system reinstated a Confederate name that had been removed, said senior research analyst Rivka Maizlish in May.
Overall, the trend of removing Confederate names and memorials has continued, even if it has slowed somewhat since 2020, she said, noting that the army renamed nine installations named after Confederate leaders, and removed a Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery.
Shenandoah County school board members who voted in May to restore Confederate names said they honor it popular sense of community. They said the previous board members who removed the names in 2020 had ignored voters and due process on the matter.
The 2023 election has significantly changed the makeup of the school board, with one board member writing in an op-ed for the Northern Virginia Daily that the results made Shenandoah County “the first 100% conservative board since anyone can remember.”
That board member, Gloria Carlineo, said at a May board meeting that opponents of Confederate names “need to stop injecting racism and prejudice into everything” because it “distracts from real instances of racism.”
The only board member to vote against reinstating the Confederate names, Kyle Gutshall, said he respected both sides of the debate but believed a majority of residents in his district wanted to leave the names Mountain View and Honey Run in place.
“I don’t judge or look down on anyone for the decision they make,” he said. “It is a complex issue.”
During hours of public comment, county residents spoke out on both sides of the issue.
Beth Ogle, a parent and longtime resident, said restoring the Confederate names “is a statement to the world that you do not value the dignity and respect of your minority students, faculty and staff.”
Kenny Wakeman, a lifelong resident of the county, said the Stonewall Jackson name “stood proudly for 60 years until 2020,” when he said the “actions of a rogue police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota” prompted an attempt to change the name, a reference to the murder of George Floyd that led to nationwide protests and debate about racial injustice.
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was a Confederate general from Virginia who rose to prominence at the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas in 1861 and died in 1863 after being shot and having his arm amputated. Jackson’s name was too removed from another high school in Prince William County in Virginia in 2020. That school was renamed Unity Reed High School.
Ashby Lee is named for both General Robert E. Lee, a Virginian who commanded Confederate forces, and Turner Ashby, a Confederate cavalry officer who died in the battle of Harrisonburg in 1862. A high school near Harrisonburg is also named for Ashby.
The decision approved by the school board states that private donations would be used to fund the name changes.
Shenandoah County, a largely rural jurisdiction of about 45,000 residents about 100 miles west of Washington, D.C., has long been politically conservative. In 2020, Republican Donald Trump won 70% of the presidential vote in Shenandoah, while Biden won Virginia by 10 points.