Heritage Attacks: A School and Robert E. Lee

DECEMBER 17, 2013: 12 NEWS "FLORIDA SCHOOL WILL DROP CONFEDERATE NATHAN B. FORREST'S NAME"

Nathan B. Forrest High School was named 54 years ago in Duvall County (Jacksonville). Monday, the school board voted 7-0 to change it. It opened in 1959 in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision requiring racially integrated schools. I usually do not like to see historical names changed, but in this case, since the majority of the students served at the school are black, I can go along with the decision. Now, if the majority had been white, that would have been a different story.

DECEMBER 18, 2013, FOX NEWS "U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE CONSIDERS REMOVING PRINTS DEPICTING ROBERT E. LEE, CONFEDERATE GENERALS."

One official at the college questioned why the paintings were there during an inventory of the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, school's paintings. The school opened in 1901 to provide study concerning the lessons of war and graduates more than 300 officers, foreign students and civilians a year. Regardless of where he received his greatest fame, Robert E. Lee's service in the U.S. Army before the war and his tactics and leadership have to be considered among the greatest in American history.

--Old Secesh

A Real Big Surprise-- Forrest High School Retains Name

Last night, in a 5-2 vote, Duval County School Board members voted to retain the Nathan Bedford Forrest name at the Jacksonville High School. I was sure it would be changed in today's anti-Confederate climate that seems to be so pervasive. Especially since Forrest was in on the early formation of the KKK. Even I might have drawn the line here.

The two votes to change it came from the two black school board members and the five whites voted to keep it. So, it was definitely a racial vote.

One black member said that Forrest was a "terrorist and a racist."

Forrest High School was originally all-white, but today is half black. It has failed the state's assessment test the last two years.

Sure Had Mixed Feelings on This One. --Old B-Runner

Forrest's Name May Come Off Florida School

As I reported last month, Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville may have a new name as of November 3rd when the Duval County School Board will meet to make a determination. It would be changed to Firestone High School after the street it is on.

According to Ron Word of AP in "Southern general's name may come off Florida school" is is part of the south's never-ending soul-searching. Steven Stoll, a sociology professor at Florida Community College: "This guy was a brutish monster. Why would you want to keep honoring a person like this? It is an insult to black people."

Efforts to rename Robert E. Lee Elementary School and Jefferson Davis Middle School in Hampton, Virginia, have failed.

Forrest High School opened in the 1950s during the Civil Rights era and was all-white at the time. Now, blacks make up half the student body. Two seniors say that the general consensus at the high school, whose athletic teams are called Rebels, is to leave the name alone.

Jacksonville has three other schools named for Confederate generals.

I'm Thinking it Will be Firestone High. --Old B-Runner