Virginia school board votes to restore Confederate names to 2 schools

A school board in Virginia voted to change the names of two schools back to Confederate leaders' names. This happened four years after the names were removed because of protests about racial injustice. The board voted to rename Mountain View High School to Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary to Ashby Lee Elementary. This decision was different from what other schools were doing in 2020 when they were removing Confederate names because of the Black Lives Matter movement. Experts say this change is the first of its kind. The Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which keeps track of Confederate memorials, said they don't know of any other school that has put back a Confederate name that was removed. Even though some Confederate names and memorials have been removed, the trend continues. The Army renamed nine bases named after Confederate leaders and removed a Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery. In Virginia, it was not allowed to remove Confederate memorials until 2020. But this law didn't apply to school names. During a long meeting, one board member said people should stop bringing racism into everything. Another member who voted against restoring the names said most people in the district wanted to keep the old names. The decision to change the names was made by a 5-1 vote at a meeting. Virginia was the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War. The state started changing school names after George Floyd's death in 2020. Some board members said the process to change the names four years ago was rushed and flawed. They want to make sure everyone's voices are heard and included. The schools will now be known as Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School again. The decision was made in a meeting that lasted more than six hours. Some people think changing the names back to Confederate leaders is not a good idea.