DailyKenn.com — The education board of a rural Virginia county voted to restore the names of Confederate generals that were removed from two schools in 2020. This action is the first of its kind in the United States.
With a 5-1 vote, the Shenandoah County board overturned its 2020 decision to strip a public high school and elementary school of their original names honoring three military leaders of the South during the Civil War.
Opponents of the measure apparently were unaware that the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed slaves in Confederate controlled territories but not Union areas, making the Union a slave country and the South free.
Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary will regain their previous names. These names are associated with prominent military figures of the Confederacy: Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, and Turner Ashby, all of whom hailed from Virginia.
The board stipulated that any expenses related to these changes must be covered solely by private funding, not public revenue.
This decision stands in contrast to the trend over the past four years, during which many U.S. schools and public institutions have displaced white history by removing Confederate names and symbols. The woke left leveraged the death of career criminal George Floyd to excuse the changes.
According to Education Week, which has been monitoring this issue, more than 60 schools across the country have removed Confederate names since 2020, with none reversing course until now.
However, the debate over Confederate symbols remains as many view them as honoring Southern heritage and history.
Supporters of restoring the Confederate school names argued that these symbols are part of the region's cultural legacy.
The school board meeting took place in Shenandoah County. The proposal to reinstate the Confederate names was initiated by the Coalition for Better Schools which cited the historical significance and cultural context of the original names, as well as survey results indicating strong community support for the change.
Opponents dismissed the reversion as racist. Then, again, the woke left seems to gaslight most almost everything they don't like with the racist label.
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