Nathan Bedford Forrest High School Keeps KKK Leaders Name
Nathan Bedford Forest High School has been embroiled in a push by many to change the name of the Jacksonville Florida facility. The Duval County School Board held a three hour hearing last night and then voted 5-2 to keep the name of the early Ku Klux Klan leader, who was Grand Wizard, first era.
The school was established in 1950 and was all white at that time. The name was chosen by the Daughters of the Confederacy, who saw it as a protest to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that eventually integrated the nation’s public schools. The school’s makeup has shifted over time and is now made up of over 50 percent black students.
Over 140 Jacksonville residents attended the meeting, with an overflow crowd of 20 additional citizens who watched on a television in the lobby. The board is made up of five white members who voted to keep the name intact and two black members who favored a name change.
“Forrest was a terrorist and a racist” argued board member Brenda Priestly Jackson. Board chairman Betty Burney was the other member who voted for a change. One suggestion was to rename the school to honor a Forrest graduate who was killed on the first night of Operation Desert Storm.
Forrest High School has received two consecutive ‘F’ grades on state assessment tests.
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Filed under: Across the Nation
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I attended the Duval County School Board meeting and my children addressed the board with their concerns. Your facts are inacurate and the article is deliberately misleading and incomplete.
First misleading statement: There were many other issues discussed at the board meeting, the “three hour hearing” implies that the three hours were dedicated to this issue.
Second: The school was established in 1959 NOT 1950.
You fail to mention the fact that the STUDENTS (over 53% black) of N.B. Forrest voted to keep the name. Independant polls taken by local news stations overwhelmingly supported keeping the name.
One board member rightfully stated her issue with changing the name was that the opposition came from OUTSIDE the alumni and immediate Forrest community. Alumni overwhelmingly support keeping the name for their tradition.
There is historical evidence to support that General Forrest did not support the radical racist activities of the Klan and was in fact a civil rights advocate in his later days. When we have atleast one former Klan member (a member when there was NO doubt about the Klan’s agenda, methods, or purpose; when it WAS a feared, hated, racist, terrorist organization in the 1940’s to 1960’s) serving as an elected official in Congress right now. Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan when he was twenty four in 1942. His local chapter unanimously elected him Exalted Cyclops. Why should he be given a pass and be allowed to serve with honor while N.B. Forrest, who arguably never commited any “Hate Crimes” ; who in his later years addressed the Jubilee of Pole Bearers, an African-American political and social group about their equality and living in peace and unity; who was admired, respected, and loved by many of his former enemies and former slaves.
Atleast Yahoo covered the name change story more objectively. They presented both sides of the argument
Who the school was named after over 40 years ago and what he may or MAY NOT have done over 150 years ago are not the primary concerns of most who support leaving the name alone. We support the traditions and history that belongs to the over 100,000 previous alumni of N. B. Forrest and our children.
The decision to name the school N.B. Forrest may have been politically motivated and made for the wrong reasons, but the decision to leave it in place was made for the right reasons.
The Duval County School Board’s decision to not change the name of N.B. Forrest High School took courage and leadership. They made this decision knowing it would be seen by many as support or celebration of segregationist values of days long past. Their decision is based on what the vast majority of current and past alumni of the school want. I salute them.
I graduated from that school back in 1996! We were trying to change the name from the racist Confederate who never live there to something better years ago. It’s a shame that Jacksonville will never grow up and become a modern city. That’s why so many intellegent open minded people leave there as soon as they can afford to. As for the 5-2 vote to keep the name it doesn’t surprise me. Racism is alive and well in Duval Dixie land.