The Virginia NAACP and student groups are suing the Shenandoah County School Board after it voted last month to reinstate the names of two schools named after Confederate generals.
Virginia NAACP president Rev. Cosey Bailey called the overturning of the ruling a “celebration of white supremacy and race-based insurrection” in the state.
“I believe that the Shenandoah County Board of Education, by voting to name a public school after a Confederate military leader, has reaffirmed its commitment to white supremacy and glorification of race-based rebellion against the United States of America,” Bailey said in a press release.
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The Virginia Board of Education has approved renaming Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School to their former Confederate names: Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School. (Mountain View High School)
The board voted 5-1 on May 10 to rename Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School to Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary, their previously controversial names.
The reversal may be the first of its kind. The Associated Press reports:.
The school’s name was changed for the first time in 2020.
The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that the school board’s decision to change the school’s name was “intended to communicate to Black students that they are not welcome.”
“By naming these schools ‘Stonewall Jackson’ and ‘Ashby Lee,’ symbolizing the Confederate leaders’ pro-slavery and white supremacist views, the Defendant School Boards attempted to send a message to black students that they were not welcome there,” the lawsuit states.
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Bailey argued that restoring the high school’s original name would convey “an inescapable reminder of our Confederate heritage.”
“As students walk the hallways of the renamed Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, they will inevitably be reminded of the Confederate legacy of enslavement and discrimination against people of African descent,” Bailey said. “This community deserves better.”
The Virginia-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Shenandoah County Board of Education over the board’s recent reinstatement of Confederate military names at two schools. (AP Photo/Steve Helber/File)
The lawsuit also alleges that the name change violates students’ First Amendment rights, the federal Equal Educational Opportunity Act and the 14th Amendment’s equal protection guarantee.
“Confederate school names and mascots express a particular ideological view that black people are inferior, which supports slavery and endorses the contemporary white supremacist movement,” the lawsuit states. “Among the Confederate’s well-known values is the staunch defense of slavery and the inferior treatment of black people. The use of Stonewall Jackson’s ‘General’ imbues the name with the Confederate’s racist, pro-slavery ideology.”
Workers remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson in Richmond, Virginia, in July 2020. (AP Photo/Steve Helber/File)
Marja Prater, senior counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in Washington, said overturning the ruling would “expose” children to “deep-rooted racism and hatred” and affect their mental health.
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“Black high school students who want to play on the football team must wear Stonewall Jackson’s ‘Generals’ uniform. Students must honor the Confederate leader who fought to keep Black people in chains as slaves,” Prater said in a press release. “Exposing children to this kind of persistent racism and hatred is damaging to their self-esteem and long-term health.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Virginia NAACP and the Shenandoah County Board of Education for comment.
