Florida School Named After KKK Leader Is Challenged by Petition

A petition to have a Jacksonville high school change its name from a KKK leader has apparently reached 90,000 signatures. Also, apparently we need petitions to not have schools named after KKK leaders. The mostly black school is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army...

By Chris Joseph

September 26, 2013

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A petition to have a Jacksonville high school change its name from a KKK leader has apparently reached 90,000 signatures.

Also, apparently we need petitions to not have schools named after KKK leaders.

The mostly black school is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army and grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who owned a plantation with slaves and reportedly ordered the execution of black soldiers after a Confederate battle victory in 1867 and HOLY CRAP THIS IS A REAL THING?

Yes. Yes it is.

And, more appalling is that this is the second time a petition has circulated to get the school to change its name to anything other than a horrible person who did atrocious things.

The first time, the motion was struck down by a school board 5-2 vote.

So, Omotayo Richmond began another petition on change.org, this time using the power of the internet and social media and the fact that it's kinda dumb to have a school named after a really, really, ridiculously racist and awful person.

Richmond says it's troubling that a school where more than half the students are black is named "for someone who would have kept their ancestors enslaved."

A district spokeswoman says the policy for changing school names does not include online petitions.

How about common sense, district person? How's that grab ya?

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