A worker attaches a rope as they prepare to remove the statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson from its pedestal on July 1, 2020, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
The NAACP Virginia State Conference filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday against the Shenandoah County School Board over the board's decision to revert two school names back to those honoring Confederate leaders.
On May 9, the Shenandoah County Public School district voted to change the names of Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary back to the schools' Confederate names — Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, respectively. The change means the school names returned to those of three namesake Confederate leaders: Robert E. Lee, General-in-chief of the Confederate States Army, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Lieutenant General of the Northern Virginia's Second Corps Army, and Turner Ashby, Brigadier General, all of whom fought to preserve slavery and segregation.
The 62-page federal lawsuit alleges that the school board's decision violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the district's Black students, and runs afoul of both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act in that the names create a "discriminatory environment" for Black students.
The names Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary are relatively new for the schools. According to the complaint, the school board approved the removal of the Confederate names in June 2020, as an acknowledgment of the discriminatory nature of the names. The schools were officially renamed in January 2021. On May 10, 2024, however, the school board voted to reinstate the schools' former names.
Plaintiffs say in their complaint that the move was more than a simple renaming and that it "signaled a return to the prior state of play, where racism and exclusion of Black students were commonplace."
The complaint argued that Confederate names "continue to be symbols of racial oppression and hatred," and are used as "rallying cries of White supremacy." Plaintiffs said that when Black students "are compelled to attend schools that glorify the leaders and ideals of the Confederacy," they are the victims of discrimination with significant psychological, academic, and social effects.
The complaint noted that the concern over naming is not simply one of history, but one with modern meaning:
When students are required to identify as members of student bodies or teams named to honor Confederate leaders in order to participate in school activities, they are required against their will to endorse the violent defense of slavery pursued by the Confederacy and the symbolism that these images have in the modern White supremacist movement.
Rev. Cozy Bailey, Virginia NAACP President, said in a statement Tuesday that 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."
"When students walk through the halls of renamed Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, they will do so with inescapable reminders of Confederate legacies that enslaved and discriminated against African-descended people," Bailey said. "This community deserves better."
Likewise, Marja Plater, Senior Counsel for Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, said that a school bearing a Confederate name necessarily forces a Black high schooler to honor a person "who fought to keep Black people in chains as slaves."
"Exposing children to this persistent racism and hate harms their self-worth and long-term health," Plater said.
The plaintiffs request that the court order a removal of the schools' Confederate names and mascots, and prohibit any future renaming involving references to the Confederacy. The plaintiffs also ask that the court order the school board to "remove all remaining vestiges of the dual school system previously operated in Shenandoah County" — a reference to the county's history of maintaining schools segregated by race.
The school board's decision to rename school was not the only Confederacy-related change in Virginia made in 2021. The same year, Virginia's highest court issued a ruling that cleared the way for officials to finally remove a long-controversial statue of Robert E. Lee.
The Shenandoah County School Board did not immediately respond to request for comment.
You can read the full complaint here.
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