MIDDLE SCHOOL DROPS CONFEDERATE SOLDIER'S NAME FOR NASA MATHEMATICIAN KATHERINE JOHNSON'S

[Judi Lynn]

by Andrea Blackstone June 10, 2021

Lanier Middle School school in Virginia name is now Katherine Johnson Middle School to honor former NASA former mathematician Katherine G. Johnson, who died in February 2020.

The City of Fairfax School Board held a renaming ceremony, according to USA Today. The trailblazing African American woman who was widely known–thanks to the book and movie Hidden Figures— for breaking barriers at NASA replaces Sydney Lanier, who was in the Confederate Army.

After the school board discovered that many locals wanted Lanier’s name stripped from the school, community input was provided on the heels of cities examining matters such as if Confederate monuments should be removed. The presence of buildings and statues with ties to the Confederacy could be deemed as racially offensive. In September 2020, the school board voted to change the name occurred after over 300 alternatives to Lanier’s name were proposed by the community.

Johnson is well known for providing calculations for Project Mercury at NASA, which led to helping send astronaut John Glenn into outer space. According to NASA, Johnson, born in 1918, hailed from White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. She earned a B.S. in Mathematics and French, from West Virginia State College. Johnson also provided math documents to compile “Notes on Space Technology” in 1958. These lectures were provided to engineers of the Flight Research Division and the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD). The group marked the formation of NACA, NASA’s first entry into spaceflight, according to NASA.

More:
https://www.blackenterprise.com/middle-school-drops-confederate-soldiers-name-for-nasa-mathematician-katherine-johnsons/

[underpants]

1. 👍

[Ilsa]

2. Kick & Rec. This post

might have been the most inspiring, joy-inducing one I've read all day.

[Danmel]

3. A considerable upgrade

[Deuxcents]

4. Some good news for a change

Good choice of name to honor Ms Johnson.

[walkingman]

6. Cool! Hidden Figures was a very cool movie. It should make even the most

blatant racist realize that we owe so much to Black America and that racism is so damn dumb.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. It's not just racially insentive--the Southerners were traitors who lost their attempt to overthrow

the United States government, bigly. They committed treason, which is the only crime defined by the in the U.S. Constitution.
Treason is the only crime defined in the U.S. Constitution. According to Article III, Section 3:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

Why the f*ck are so many military bases, schools and national memorials named for Confederate leaders? At one time, I attended Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery, Alabama. I didn't think anything about it, even if white nationalists came from out-of-state to protest its desegregation by three very courageous black students. My family had just moved from Alaska, where "n*gger" isn't every other word in a sentence. (I was surprised when we moved to St. Louis, where it's used every fourth word.)

I digress. It's time to clean-up and honor Union leaders.

[Paladin]

8. This needs to happen to several "Lanier" schools, here in Texas.

Sooner rather than later.