Its not a matter of history. In fact, its a history Progressives would rather deny in truth.
The latest attack front has been the renaming of schools in public school systems throughout the country bearing the namesakes of individuals they deem no longer worthy to be honored by present generations. Organizations that once stood for justice, equality and freedom of expression now have been overhauled by Progressive the humanist identity politics theories that shape the arguments they assert.
Recently, the NAACP brought a lawsuit in US District Court (Eastern District)Virginia to bring about the name changing of two schools in Hanover County, Virginia that bear the namesake of three Confederate period individuals. The NAACP claims that African American students at Stonewall Jackson Middle School and Lee-Davis High School are forced to attend schools which "champion a legacy of segregation and oppression".
While there are no reports of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis or Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson teaching in the classrooms of any of these schools, it appears the NAACP is arguing that the "name" of a school in some way imparts a socio-economic condition upon African-American students unjustly and in some manner violates their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech and equal protection.
No one has denied any students right to free speech within the guidelines of the student handbook nor has any student been denied access to education at either school on bases of race or ethnicity. Furthermore, no student has been documented to suffer from any condition like PTSD traumatic neurological conditions as a direct result of the school name or mascots associated with the schools.
Are African American students not afforded the same education as every other race or ethnicity in these schools? Are these students exposed to a different education than other schools in Hanover County simply based on the historic nature of the school names. Will re branding school names get Lee-Davis High School seniors into better colleges throughout Virginia region that they themselves have namesakes like Washington & Lee, Mary Washington, George Washington University, George Mason University, Christopher Newport, William & Mary, Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia or James Madison University, George Wythe Law School-William & Mary, Randolph Macon College or even Longwood University named after Longwood House the birth site of two Confederate Generals.
Will Progressives seek the renaming of all these institutions and any other school with namesakes they deem "offensive". Can the NAACP make the case that education at these two schools is under performing due to the namesake? Are students themselves suffering academically? Are not our schools a place of "teachable moments" and education and not "social experiments" in Progressivism?
What are we demonstrating to children today exactly? That is you do not like the name of something or deem a name to "offensive" to you that that somehow usurps another's right to freedom of expression or speech? That speech must conform to their own views or has no place in the public square?
Proponents will argue that a name change is in order to better reflect the present and that by re naming or "branding" schools with new identities that students will embrace the new name and learn about the person who becomes the new namesake. However, that begs the question are students today actually being educated as to their current namesakes or are teachers afraid to have those "teachable moments" and if they are afraid should we not address why that is?
May teachers be afraid exactly because of the backlash of Progressive groups? That they would dare teach about Virginia history or inform students as to the role the namesake played "in their time" to history? It has become clear the effort is not merely removing monuments or re branding schools but rather the "blackwashing" of history so as to not offend one group or another.
Imagine if for example, we no longer acknowledged the Holocaust. That we became deniers of the Holocaust and how "offensive" that would be to Jewish Americans. Is not what the NAACP is doing on behalf of Progressive groups (and not students) simply denying history. They wish our schools systems to become deniers of history. That somehow removing the Confederate period of Virginia history will somehow create an environment of harmony and yet are the schools in Hanover County not harmonious?
https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/mechanicsville/826-Lee-Davis-High-School/#Students
Lee-Davis ranks a 6/10 on GreatSchools.net and a 7/10 College readiness ranking The school is comprised of twelve percent African American. Stonewall Jackson Middle School ranks 5/10 with nine percent of the student body African American.
https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/mechanicsville/832-Stonewall-Jackson-Middle-School/#Students
The focus of the NAACP lawsuit is on the African American students not the overall student body at large. That somehow spending millions of dollars to brand the schools should be the priority and not "in the classroom" funding to meet the needs of these students in order to raise their level of achievement.
Fairfax County recently released its plan to rename schools to the tune of 15 million dollars. Would not Hanover County and students at large be better served if the School systems was permitted to allocate funding to actual initiatives that promote achievement? Funding that can be used to prepare students for college and beyond?
Can the NAACP provide any evidence that scholastic achievement will be raised should the school's be renamed? Is there any evidence to support that student participation in school activities will increase?
The City of Richmond renamed J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School in 2018 re branding the school as Barack Obama Elementary School. The school is comprised of 90% African American students. has the renaming influenced education? Has it raised the overall schools and levels of achievement at the school? The data indicates it has not. The City has not formerly disclosed exactly how much it in fact costs in the end to rename the elementary school. Costs increase with each level of school given things like sports, stadiums, gymnasium flooring etc and not simply just the name of the school on the outside of the building. The hidden costs are also in social media, school identification, signage. In fact, Great Schools still has the school listed as JEB Stuart Elementary.
Hanover County School Board is projecting it to cost about of half million dollars if the Board was to advance with renaming the Hanover schools in wake of the lawsuit. It is clear that Progressives would rather have this money spent on advancing identity politics than spent in the classroom.
The NAACP narrative for many of these cases is the school namesakes represent "white supremacy" or honor "white supremacists". It goes so far as to claim in Hanover that the namesakes have no connection to the County whatsoever. That argument seems rather ridiculous in light of the Obama naming with no relation to Richmond and given the history of Hanover and the Civil War and the battles fought within the County from Cold Harbor or the Seven Days Campaign or the fact there are three national military historic parks and multiple sites in Hanover County that Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson participated in Hanover County. One could certainly argue that Lee and Jackson were in fact Virginians at least and had greater ties to Virginia's history than Obama ever has.
Why the City of Richmond did not name the school after former Governor Doug Wilder, the first African American Governor in United States History since Reconstruction. Wilder was born in Richmond.
Maybe the NAACP should read "Military Operations in Hanover County Virginia 1861-65" by John M. Gabbert if it truly is interested in the history of Hanover but lets be clear the NAACP is not interested in actual history. It is interested in progressive socio-engineering of classrooms based on unfounded and frankly divisive means that Hanover County citizens should reject.
Did Virginia own slaves? Yes. By 1860, the total slave population was almost 500,000 out of about 1,6 million inhabitants. Is every Virginian from that period supposed to e held accountable for the actions of the Confederacy or of slaveholders? The majority of families in Virginia did not own slaves. Is the assertion that if "one wore grey" and fought for the Virginia after it joined the Confederacy tan the legacy of all is "white supremacy"? What about those Virginians who fought for abolition? Or were members of the Whig Party?
This is less an attack on these two schools as much as it is on Virginia history itself. Progressives seek to redefine the past and elevate only the events that conform to the narratives they are attempting to enforce politically. They care little about the expense to localities nor the division they inflame with their hate filled rhetoric. Make no mistake it is not these namesakes reaching out from the past but rather the voices of Progressives that are dividing communities and doing so intentionally to advance agendas.
This notion that we should judge the past in our time and not "in their time" is fraught with peril. This exercise undertaken by the NAACP and other Progressive groups is pure "blackwashing"- the progressive aim to turn the light of history off and ensure it remains hidden in darkness.
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