Despite wide opposition, all-white Virginia school board votes to restore Confederate school names

Doug Cunningham
·2 min read
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UPI
Virginia's Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 Friday to restore Confederate names to two local schools. Gaylene Kanoyton, President of the Hampton, Va. NAACP, said "Such actions only perpetuate racism." Pictured is the dismantling of the Gen. Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia September 8, 2021. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

May 10 (UPI) -- Virginia's all-white Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 Friday to restore Confederate names to a high school and an elementary school.

Gaylene Kanoyton, president of the Hampton NAACP, said in a statement, "Such actions only perpetuate racism and bigotry, both in Virginia and across the nation. Is this a resurgence of Jim Crow-era policies in the 21st century?"

Kanoyton added, "We stand resolute in our commitment to combatting systemic racism and will vigorously advocate for inclusivity and equality in all facets of society."

The names being restored are Confederate military leaders who waged war on American soldiers in order to defend the right to enslave African Americans in the South.

In a letter to the school board, the right-wing Coalition for Better Schools wrote, "We believe that revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community's heritage and respect the wishes of the majority."

That coalition succeeded in ousting some school board members who opposed restoring the Confederate names in 2022.

The Virginia NAACP said in a statement, "Military leaders of the Confederate States of America took up arms against the United States of America and fought to preserve and expand the peculiar institution of slavery."

The board voted to remove the Confederate names in the wake of the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd.

Shenandoah County resident and parent Sarah Kohrs spoke against restoring the Confederate names, as did most of the roughly 80 people who addressed the school board about it.

"With the world watching, the Shenandoah county school board sent a terrible message," she said. "We deplore the board's decision to regress and 'honor' Civil War figures that consciously betrayed the United States and were proponents of slavery and segregation."

"I am a Black student, and if the names are restored, I would have to represent a man that fought for my ancestors to be slaves," one student said to the board members.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, at least 160 public Confederate symbols were taken down or moved from public places in 2020.

Shenandoah County is the first known location that has decided to put Confederate names and symbols back up.