Virginia School Board to Bring Back Names of Confederate Leaders to Schools

Crews remove the torso of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, one of the country's largest remaining monuments to the Confederacy, on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., on Sept. 8, 2021. Steve Helber/AP Photo

The Shenandoah County school board in Virginia approved the decision to restore the names of Confederate military leaders to two public schools on May 10. The Mountain View High School and the Honey Run Elementary School will go back to being named Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School, respectively, after the Confederate leaders Stonewall Jackson, Turner Ashby, and Robert E. Lee.

The two public schools in Shenandoah County, Virginia, changed their names in 2020 in the wake of national outrage over the killing of 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The incident prompted numerous communities to get rid of Confederate iconography, symbolism, and statues.