Beth Veney Ogle recalls when, as a student at Stonewall Jackson High School in Shenandoah County, Va., the Confederate flag was displayed in the gymnasium. She remembers the flag being run up and down the sidelines of games as a student in the late 鈥�90s.
鈥淭here was always an undercurrent of having to know which people I felt safe around,鈥� she said in a phone interview.
Veney Ogle, who is biracial, said she recently found herself in the same position as her grandparents, who in 1963 asked the school district to provide the 鈥渄ignity and respect of a full educational opportunity鈥� to their children.
鈥淪ixty-one years. And here I stand, formally, making the same request for their great-grandchildren,鈥� she told the school board in early May, asking them not to reinstate the names Stonewall Jackson and Ashby Lee鈥攏ames honoring leaders and soldiers in the Confederate army鈥攖o the district鈥檚 high school and elementary school.
The board, after hours of public comment and an hour of board discussion, voted 5-1 to reinstate the names early , four years after previous members had renamed the schools to Mountain View High and Honey Run Elementary.
For hours, community members, parents, and students in the district spoke to the school board about the decision. Those in favor of keeping the new names outnumbered those who wanted to return to the old names in public comments, but board members said surveys and emails weighed heavily toward renewing the names. The board criticized former members in 2020 for quickly voting to change the names.
The Virginia school board鈥檚 decision is the first reversal of its kind, and some historians and researchers worry it will encourage other districts to do the same.
Gregg Suzanne Ferguson, adjunct for the psychology department of West Virginia State University, who has said she is getting weary of this battle.
鈥淚 thought the work had been done,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t just never would have occurred to me that there would be this backlash against the protections for every citizen of the United States to have the same type of experience living here.鈥�
Confederate school names have faced scrutiny since 2020
Approximately 340 schools in 21 states are named for Confederate figures, according to data collected by Education Week, which tracks Confederate-named schools.
Proponents of such names have argued that it is a part of Southern heritage; researchers say there鈥檚 a romanticization of the era and the 鈥淟ost Cause.鈥� Opponents, however, say the names are symbols of slavery and racism, creating a harmful environment for Black students and educators.
Campaigns to change the names of schools named for Confederate figures have surged after high-profile racist incidents, such as the June 2015 shooting of nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., the death and injuries at a 2017 white supremacist rally and counter-protest in Charlottesville, Va., and the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in Minneapolis in May 2020.
At least 61 schools have changed their names since June 29, 2020, after Floyd鈥檚 murder spurred a racial reckoning, according to EdWeek data.
Three states鈥擮regon, New York, and Nevada鈥攅nacted legislation in some way prohibiting school districts from using names, logos, and mascots associated with the Confederacy, according to data collected by Lauren Gendill, a policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. A similar measure in Georgia failed in 2022.
Chloe Lancaster, an associate professor in education at the University of South Florida, and her colleagues of another Southern school board鈥檚 decision to retain its Confederate-based Rebel mascot on school-based helping professionals (such as school counselors and social workers).
鈥淭hey really spoke about how when you have a mascot imbued with all the history in the South, it just really normalized a culture of racism in the school and community,鈥� Lancaster said.
It was a point of shame and embarrassment for the Black educators, she said.
Ferguson said her own research, showed that many students didn鈥檛 have an awareness of the harm in the names, and educators were reluctant to 鈥渕ake students aware of the symbolic violence inherent in those names.鈥� But in eliminating the names of Confederate figures in schools nationally, it brought the racism embedded in the names into the open for students, she said.
鈥淩everting back to those same names of those racists is definitely going to indicate to the students that yeah, we鈥檙e doubling down,鈥� she said.
Confederate school names picked up steam in the 1940s and 50s, researchers say
Jason Pierce, an associate professor and chair of the history department at Angelo State University in Texas, said he and his colleague got involved with a grassroots effort to remove the name of Robert E. Lee from a local middle school, using their
Pierce said that there were two periods in history where there was a wave of Confederate namings and monument placements: around World War I, and after World War II during the Civil Rights Movement. After World War I, Black servicemen were returning from fighting alongside the French in a non-segregated environment, he said, and saw another way to live. Historians, he said, argue that the backlash was an effort to curb progress.
After World War II, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining traction and momentum. In opposition, schools were named after Confederate leaders, statues were placed in their honor, and state flags were redone to incorporate the Confederate flag, he said.
Now, the attachment to the names that sprung up in the 1940s and 1950s boils down to a few reasons, Pierce said.
One, he said, is that alumni feel it鈥檚 not their school anymore because of the name changes. Alumni are attached to the name because they remember the school that way.
Also, there鈥檚 often a romanticization around the Confederacy and the 鈥淟ost Cause,鈥� Pierce said鈥攕eeing it instead as a 鈥済allant but doomed romantic effort to stand up for what you believe in.鈥�
Some of the attachment to the Confederate-named schools might be a way to espouse racist ideas without coming off like a racist鈥攂y celebrating the Confederacy and marginalizing the role of slavery, he said.
Pierce is now wondering if the people who had wanted to retain the name of Robert E. Lee at the local middle school will renew the fight鈥攁nd what would happen if they do.
鈥淲ith the political climate now, I鈥檓 not sure if we would have been successful in a campaign to change the name now,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been a real backlash, I guess, against not just changing names, but everything that鈥檚 labeled as DEI,鈥� or diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In an email, school board chairman Dennis Barlow said that 鈥渢he reliably liberal outlets have been critical, but most letters and emails I get applaud the decision to let history win out over 鈥榳oke鈥� politics.鈥�
At the board meeting, Barlow, a retired U.S. colonel, said he understood that the return of the name would be unsettling, but the 鈥淏lack soldiers that I soldiered with, I don鈥檛 think they would think going to Stonewall Jackson High School was the biggest threat that ever happened to them.鈥�
鈥淭he hyperbole here is rather stunning,鈥� he said.
But for Veney Ogle鈥檚 daughter, an 8th grader who plays three sports at Mountain View, going to a school named for Jackson doesn鈥檛 feel right.
鈥淪he鈥檚 a phenomenal student and student-athlete,鈥� her mother said. 鈥淭hat means something to her, representing her school and honoring her school. She doesn鈥檛 feel like she can do that at Stonewall without dishonoring her heritage, who she is, and her values. It鈥檚 something we鈥檙e having many conversations about and we don鈥檛 really feel like there鈥檚 a good option.鈥�
Veney Ogle, whose father went to a segregated elementary school and whose aunt was in the first class to integrate in Shenandoah County, said it鈥檚 difficult to describe her relationship to her time at the high school. There were good friends and positive people around her, coupled with a present danger.
鈥淵ou can love something and still be disappointed in it,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou can love the people and the building and still be disappointed in the history of the building, the community, and the way the community has devalued, or refused to acknowledge, the Black lives and Black experiences.鈥�
