Florida School Named After Klan Leader to Change Name
Forty-three years after it was integrated by court order, Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Fla., will drop the name of the Confederate general who , presided over the massacre of surrendering black Yankee troops, and was the first national leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
It was a long time coming.
Initial efforts to change the name of the school, whose student body is now 61% black, were made in the early 1990s but failed. A second attempt, led by local sociology professor Lance Stoll and a few of his students, also failed in 2007, even though Stoll surveyed the local community and jumped through a series of hoops imposed by the school board. The board defied its own policies then, with members voting 5-2 along racial lines to keep the name of the infamous Confederate.
But this Monday, culminating the largest campaign yet, the board, all of whose members but one are new since 2007, to select a new name before August 2014. Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who supported the change from the beginning, said it could end a 鈥渃loud of divisiveness鈥� and would now 鈥渁llow us to focus on what matters most 鈥� student achievement.鈥�
鈥淲e recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history,鈥� Duval County School Board member Constance Hall . 鈥淔or too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect and equality 鈥� all that we expect in Duval schools. Our board has [been] and is guided by a set of core values that promote equal opportunity, honors differences, and values diversity.鈥�
Stoll said he was glad for the change but still amazed at the stiff defense of the name put up by many locals. 鈥淭heir argument was so shallow and so ridiculous,鈥� he told Hatewatch. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 defend Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was a miserable, despicable human being. And the Confederacy was a horrible place. Why do we allow our schools to be named after treasonous people? It鈥檚 just amazing.鈥�
It wasn鈥檛 easy. In addition to Stoll, a key player this time was Otomayo Richmond, who started a national petition on the Change.org website that eventually garnered some 160,000 signatures. The local NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the local Democratic Party, several unions and others worked hard to press the campaign forward, Stoll said. 鈥淚n 2007, it was me and two or three students,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his time, we had a broad coalition and the social media. I think the people running Jacksonville today don鈥檛 want to be a redneck town any more.鈥�
In recent surveys, 94% of the school鈥檚 alumni opposed changing the name. But 64% of students supported the change, as did Vitti and, ultimately, all members of the multiracial board. By a small margin, the local community also backed a change.
Still, it was an uphill battle that may have turned on a single moment about six weeks ago. 鈥淓very board member received a letter from the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan of Missouri,鈥� Stoll said. 鈥淓ven the most conservative people on the school board said they were horrified. That was the best thing that happened.鈥�
