Board Considers Taking KKK Leader's Name Off High School

[davidn3600]

A Florida school board has agreed to begin considering whether to change the name of a primarily black high school named for the first "grand wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan and Confederate Army General, Nathan Bedford Forrest.

A petition started on Change.org by Omotayo Richmond challenged the Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville. So far the petition has garnered over 160,000 signatures from across the nation.

Omotayo Richmond has a daughter in the Duval County Public School system and says he would not allow his daughter to attend the high school honoring the name of the Klansman.

"It just wouldn't happen," Richmond said. "I believe it's outrageous that this could even be questioned by anybody … that anybody could even come to the defense of this man."

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/board-considers-taking-kkk-leaders-name-off-high-022709761--abc-news-topstories.html

[IrishAyes]

1. No public building should be named after any treasonous secessionist.

[Nye Bevan]

2. Oh, I thought at first that this would be about the Robert C Byrd High School.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_C._Byrd_High_School&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop

[morningfog]

4. Oh, I knew you would post that in this thread.

How do you feel about the name change?

[Nye Bevan]

5. I don't think any school should be named for a slaveholder or a Klansman.

Do you agree?

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Klansman, definitely. Slaveholder not so easy...

very few of the Founders and early Presidents weren't slaveholders, sad to say. Virginia, a plantation state, was the wealthiest and most influential colony and state way back then so a lot of slaveholders built this country-- with slaves doing most of the manual labor. Even Massachusetts had a few slaves, IIRC, so our history is tied forever to this evil practice.

That should humble us, but it hasn't worked that way for some reason.

on edit-- this post was duped somehow. Deleted dupe below

[pipoman]

6. Me too...lol..

[CurtEastPoint]

3. Atlanta changed Forrest Ave. to Ralph McGill Blvd about 30 years ago

It was named after that KKK asshole. Ralph McGill was the anti-segregationist editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution.

[alp227]

9. Germany doesn't have any high schools named after Hitler or Goebbels or Himmler.

Why name our high schools after Klansmen?

[Nye Bevan]

10. +1 nt