SHENANDOAH COUNTY, Va. — The Virginia NAACP and five Shenandoah County students have filed a lawsuit against the county's school board after it voted to restore Confederate names to two schools, according to a release.
The lawsuit alleges that the Shenandoah County School Board created an unlawful and discriminatory educational environment for Black students.
The release claimed that Shenandoah County has a legacy of segregation and discrimination and that restoring the Confederate names embraces that legacy.
Watch: An education board in Virginia votes to restore Confederate names to 2 schools
On May 9, 2024, the Shenandoah County School Board voted to restore the names of Confederate military leaders to a high school and an elementary school four years after the names had been removed.
Shenandoah County's school board voted 5-1 to rename Mountain View High School as Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary as Ashby Lee Elementary.
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was a Confederate general from Virginia who gained fame at the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas in 1861 and died in 1863 after he was shot in battle and had his arm amputated. Jackson's name was also removed from another high school in Virginia's Prince William County in 2020 that is now known as Unity Reed High School.
Turner Ashby was a Confederate cavalry officer who was killed in battle in 1862 near Harrisonburg, Virginia. A high school near Harrisonburg is also named for him. Robert E. Lee was a Virginia native who commanded Confederate forces.
The vote reversed a decision by the school board in 2020, a time when school systems across the South were removing Confederate names from schools in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“My belief is the Shenandoah County School Board reaffirmed their commitment to White supremacy and the celebration of a race-based rebellion against the United States of America with their vote to name public schools after military leaders of the Confederate States of America,” said Rev. Cozy Bailey, Virginia NAACP President.
Watch related coverage: The history behind Confederate monuments and the symbolism they carry
The complainants claim that Black students are being forced to attend a school that honors Confederate leaders, which they said denies them an equal opportunity to an education and violates their equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and First Amendment right to free speech.
“By voting for Confederate names, the school board is subjecting children to discrimination," said Marja Plater, Senior Counsel, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
School board members who voted to restore the Confederate names said the previous board ignored popular sentiment and due process when the names were stripped.
Elections in 2023 significantly changed the school board's makeup.
