KKK Battles Town Over School Bearing Klansman’s Name [View all]

[marmar]

KKK Battles Town Over School Bearing Klansman’s Name
Posted on Oct 21, 2013


Residents of Jacksonville, Fla., are trying to get school officials to strike the name of Nathan B. Forrest—a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard—from the title of their high school.

Administrators attached Forrest’s name to the school in 1959 in an act of defiance to integration laws enforced by the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Jacksonville resident Omotayo Richmond launched a Change.org petition asking the Duval County School Board to change the name. He has collected 150,000 signatures so far.

An effort to change the name back in 2008 failed by a vote of 5 to 2. Board members are the only people empowered to make the change.

“I don’t want my daughter, or any student, going to a school named under those circumstances,” Richmond writes on the petition’s Web page. “This is a bad look for Florida—with so much racial division in our state, renaming Forrest High would be a step toward healing.” .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/kkk_battles_town_over_school_bearing_klansmans_name_20131021?ln