Virginia NAACP President Cozy Bailey addresses a crowd in Shenandoah County Circuit Court on Tuesday. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
The NAACP of Virginia filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Shenandoah County School Board for what it called “reaffirming discrimination” after the school system voted in May to rename schools with Confederate names.
The lawsuit alleges that the school board violated the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunity Act. The plaintiffs are seeking to remove the names, mascots and vestiges of the Confederacy and prevent any future naming of schools involving Confederate leaders or references to the Confederacy.
On May 10, the Shenandoah County School Board reversed a 2020 decision by a previous board to rename two schools after Confederate Generals Turner Ashby, Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. In 2021, the division’s south campus schools, including North Fork Middle, were renamed from Stonewall Jackson High School to Mountain View, and Ashby-Lee Elementary School to Honey Run.
Shenandoah County Public Schools responded to a request for comment but did not immediately comment.
“This backward step has created a negative reaction around the world, and the world is watching to see whether this diversity of seeds of hatred and disenfranchisement will take root and return Shenandoah County and the Commonwealth of Virginia to the days of racial exclusion. existed. the law of the land,” said Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of the Virginia NAACP.
On Tuesday, Bailey, members of the state NAACP and their attorneys joined about 45 community members and students in Shenandoah County Circuit Court to announce legal action against the school board’s decision to return Confederate names to the schools. It appears to be the first school district in the country to do this.
Bailey described the board’s May 10 decision as “cold-hearted” and reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. He said the organization is not trying to revise history, but rather “charter” a better path for the future by learning from the past and not making the same mistakes.
Some people, including some Shenandoah residents who support the reversal of the school names, believe the Confederacy represents a legacy of Southerners’ bravery against the federal Union as they fought for Southern states’ rights. Others, including civil rights groups and some Shenandoah students and families, view the Confederacy as defenders of slavery and a fundamental part of America’s history of racism.
Between the 1950s and 1960s, local leaders in Shenandoah County named public schools after Confederate leaders.
Since that time, a movement has developed in the courtrooms and through legislation at the state and federal levels to make schools more inclusive and equitable. In recent years, localities across the state have made a concerted effort to address the history of white supremacist ideology and historical practices of creating unfair advantages for white people by implementing policy changes and organizing community discussions on these topics.
Several communities in Virginia have renamed roads that bore the names of people associated with slavery and removed signs and symbols of the Confederacy, such as statues.
Attorneys from the Washington Lawyers’ Committee and Covington & Burling LLP represent the plaintiffs: the NAACP and five current students at the Shenandoah County Public Schools.
Marja Plater, senior counsel at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, said Confederate generals deeply believed and fought to preserve the ideology of white supremacy.
“It’s what these guys are known for,” Plater said. “By honoring them, we honor the legacy of discrimination.”
According to Ashley Joyner Chavous, an attorney with Covington & Burling, the community was involved early in the process of pushing back against the renamed schools, before the legal team received help from families in the community and their “brave” children who stepped up to share their perspectives.
“We’ve only learned more, and we look forward to engaging with the community as we move forward with this meditation,” Chavous said.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the Western District Court of Virginia in Harrisonburg. A judge and a hearing date have not yet been set.
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