TEXAS: Houston School Board Approves Renaming of Schools, Slammed on Cost
HOUSTON — The Houston school board has approved a $1.2 million budget for the renaming of eight schools named after Confederate loyalists. The move has gained backlash from taxpayers in the community.
KPRC Houston reported that the Houston Independent School District (HISD) held a board meeting on Thursday to decide on the cost to change the names of schools with ties to the Confederate. The approved changes were estimated to cost around $1.2 million.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson Middle School will be renamed to Yolanda Black Navarro Middle School.
It was slammed by parents and taxpayers who believe that the money would be better off spent on books, school supplies and the re-hiring of special education employees. A group of concerned parents even filed a lawsuit against the Houston school board with the hopes that the renaming of the schools would be stopped since it was illegal.
The district has maintained its confidence that the estimates provided in the past and future do not have an impact on the validity of the boards actions. The new names will take effect this school year.
The schools and their new names are: Johnston Middle School to Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School; Sidney Lanier Middle School to Bob Lanier Middle School; Lee High School to Margaret Long Wisdom High School; Reagan High School to Heights High School; Jackson Middle School to Yolanda Black Navarro Middle School of Excellence; Dowling Middle School to Audrey H. Lawson Middle School; and Davis High School to Northside High School.
“By their nature, the costs associated with renaming the schools are not known precisely when the decisions were made,” HISD said in a statement. “These are refined over time and HISD administration has presented updated information since before it was served with the lawsuit and will continue to do so in the future.”
According to Chron, the renaming stemmed from the Jun. 2015 shooting of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., where the Confederate flag hung at the statehouse at the time. The deaths prompted the nation to remove symbols of the Confederacy.
–universityherald.com
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NORTH CAROLINA: SCV Event Focuses on Minority History
NEWTON, N.C. – A local Sons of Confederate Veterans Chapter held its first History Saturday, focusing on the role of minorities in the Confederate army and addressing what the organization sees as misconceptions about the Confederacy.
The all-day event included displays such as the Confederate submarine C.S.S H.L. Hunley and re-enactors dressed in Confederate uniforms.
H.K. Edgerton leads the crowd in a rendition of “Dixie” in his Confederate uniform. KEVIN GRIFFIN/RECORD
A program inside the 1924 Courthouse included several speakers on a variety of subjects related to the Confederacy, including several African-American speakers.
The Rev. Dwayne Tutt, who expressed concern over the display of the flag at the parade during a debate over the flag in 2015, said he understood the position of those who supported the Confederate flag.
“I understand what was going on back then, because people had to try to live. I was a soldier, and when you’re told to go, you go,” Tutt said.
At the same time, he spoke of the strong reactions that many African-Americans have to the Confederate flag.
“Unfortunately for you though, a lot people of African descent don’t necessarily, all we see are those visions of that flag being used to terrorize our people. That’s unfortunate, but that’s the truth, that’s what we see,” Tutt said.
Tutt thanked members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans for entering into a dialogue on the issue.
Teresa Roane, a former archivist at the Museum of the Confederacy, presented documentation for African-American Confederate soldiers, including one of her own ancestors.
“I am going to talk about a subject about people who don’t exist, because they tell you that they are a myth,” Roane said.
The national narrative on the Civil War often erases African-American Confederate soldiers, and it can be difficult raising the history of African-Americans in the Confederate army, Roane said.
“We’re fighting an uphill battle, folks. It’s really scary that we are willing to eliminate history because we don’t like it,” Roane said.
“I tell people we are who we are because of our past, and we should embrace it all,” Roane said.
H.K. Edgerton, who has become known for his activism related to Confederate heritage, spoke about what he sees as misconceptions about the South, the Confederacy and the Confederacy’s relationship with African-Americans.
Edgerton referred to several stories of positive interactions between Confederate leaders and African-Americans.
One story described a speech Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest gave to the Independent Order of the Pole-Bearers Association, an African-American civil rights organization, in 1875.
At the conclusion of his speech, Forrest received flowers and kissed a black woman.
Edgerton said divisions are being created between different racial groups.
“Here we are in reconstruction all over again, black folks and white folks being pitted against each other,” Edgerton said.
Edgerton also criticized the local NAACP for not being present at the in the event.
“This is the table of brotherhood. How can you not sit down at the table of brotherhood and not have interaction and talk with each other?” Edgerton said.
The event comes the year after a debate in community arose over the appropriateness of displaying the Confederate flag in the Soldiers Reunion parade.
Going into the Soldiers Reunion this year, the issue of the flag remains contentious for many in the community.
Commander Mark Nixon, the Sons of Confederate Veterans leader who organized the event, said he invited the Catawba County NAACP to the event, but that the NAACP had chosen not to participate.
Catawba County NAACP President Jerry McCombs said the presence of the Confederate flag was what kept him from attending.
“If he would have had an event, and not had the flag on the premises, I would have come,” McCombs said.
McCombs urged those who had disagreements with his views to attend the NAACP’s meetings, which occur every second Sunday of the month at Mt. Olin AME Zion Church.
–hickoryrecord.com
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