Officials in Roanoke will consider renaming Stonewall Jackson Middle School — the city’s only remaining school named after a Confederate general. School board Chairwoman Annette Lewis said a committee is being formed to address the matter.
From Associated Press: Officials in Roanoke, Virginia, will consider renaming Stonewall Jackson Middle School.
The Roanoke times reported Saturday that it is city’s only remaining school that’s named after a Confederate general. A portrait of Jackson also hangs in the building. School board Chairwoman Annette Lewis said a committee is being formed to address the matter. The building dates to 1923. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was a Confederate commander who earned his nickname in the First Battle of Manassas, also known as Bull Run, in 1861. The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates that 21 schools in Virginia are named after well-known Confederate generals. Calls for the renaming of such schools follow the violence that erupted last month during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
