Florida school named after Ku Klux Klan leader to change its name

[Jae Manzel]

Nathan Bedford Forrest's name was attached to school in 1959 as a response to desegregation and the civil rights movement

A Florida school named after a white supremacist who was an early Ku Klux Klan leader and a slave trader will change its name after a student’s father successfully petitioned the school board.

Nearly 60% of the students at Nathan Bedford Forrest high school in Jacksonville, Florida, are black.

"We recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history," said Constance Hall, a board member for the Duval County school district, in a statement. "For too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect and equality.”

The Duval County school board announced on Monday night that the name will be changed at the start of the 2014 school year in August, and a new name will be proposed in January.

Ty Richmond, father of a Nathan Bedford Forrest student, drew national attention to the district when he created an online petition to change the name. More than 160,000 people signed Richmond’s petition.

“Now is the time to right a historical wrong,” Richmond wrote. “African American Jacksonville students shouldn't have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year.”

Forrest joined the Klan after serving as a lieutenant general in the Confederate army during the American civil war. He held a leadership role in the organization shortly after it was founded, but his official title is in dispute.

He is also the namesake for Forrest school in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, and a city park in Memphis was named after him until February of this year. There is also a Tennessee state park named after him.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said at a school board meeting that Forrest’s name was attached to the new school in 1959 as a response to desegregation and the civil rights movement. “That was not the will of the students, and considering the opinion of the students in this process I think it is an opportunity to give voice to students whose voices were not heard in the beginning and can certainly be heard now,” Vitti said.

An earlier attempt to rename the school failed in 2008, when the board voted 5-2 to keep Forrest’s name. This year, board members vote unanimously in favor of changing it.

School board members held a public meeting last month and surveyed alumni and students to gauge how the community would feel about the change. This moved some people to wave a Confederate flag outside the school last week in protest. A high-ranking Klan member also wrote a letter to the board members condemning the proposed action.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...kk-change-name