STORY: Confederate names will be reinstated at two schools in the U.S. state of Virginia, after a school board in Shenandoah County voted early Friday 5-1 in favor of the move.
The motion undid the school board's decision in 2020 to strip a high school and elementary school of the names of three Civil War military leaders from pro-slavery southern states: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Turner Ashby.
The community will be the first in the nation to reinstate such names.
It bucks a four-year trend of U.S. institutions removing symbols of the Confederacy, following nationwide racial justice protests triggered by George Floyd's murder by police officers in 2020.
A local conservative coalition in April asked the school board for the change, saying it was "essential to honor our community's heritage."
It wants Mountain View High School to go back to the name Stonewall Jackson High, and Honey Run Elementary to become Ashby-Lee Elementary again.
On Thursday evening before the vote, the school board listened to arguments on both sides from parents as well as former and current students.
"I'm a Black student, and if the names are restored, I would have to represent a man who fought for my ancestors to be slaves."
"Tearing down statues and monuments and erasing history while indoctrinating children is exactly what Adolf Hitler did in the late 1930s in Germany."
"This Board has a moral and ethical obligation to the citizens you represent to undo the dirtiest, most underhanded political stunt in the history of Shenandoah County politics."
"Important decisions like this one must consider the voices of the students. The students would be most affected by this change. As a current student, it is hard to imagine a scenario where reverting the name back to Stonewall Jackson would improve the education received by any student attending the school."
The school board's vice chairman, Kyle Gutshall, earlier told Reuters, the name changes in 2020 had increased public attention on the board and helped shift its political composition to the right.
While Gutshall's predecessor Michelle Manning voiced concern about how charged the issue had become, saying she received threatening phone calls after the vote in 2020.
According to a 2022 Reuters investigation, school board members across the United States have faced a rash of threats and hostile messages ignited by roiling controversies over subjects such as U.S. racial history.
