Nathan Beford Forrest High: Time For a Name Change

[If_I_Loved_you]

Did he start a group that promoted lynching them?

I don't know but don't forget not everything in history is told?

[JayBird]

Did he start a group that promoted lynching them?

I don't know but don't forget not everything in history is told?

# 2 on my list.  Congratulations.

Haha classic. And the win goes to ... Mr. Dare!

[If_I_Loved_you]

Did he start a group that promoted lynching them?

I don't know but don't forget not everything in history is told?

# 2 on my list.  Congratulations.

Haha classic. And the win goes to ... Mr. Dare!

-1000

[If_I_Loved_you]

Did he start a group that promoted lynching them?

I don't know but don't forget not everything in history is told?

# 2 on my list.  Congratulations.

Your Welcome 

[Cheshire Cat]

Picked this up from Robert on his FB page.  Lord have mercy.  This is a must read!



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/02/kkk-asks-panel-to-keep-school-named-after-grand-wizard-of-white-supremacist-group/

Nathan Bedford Forrest (nps.gov)



Here's the latest in the you-can't-make-up-this-stuff story about a school in Florida that is still named after the first "grand wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan. A current "imperial kaltrop" of the KKK has written a letter to members of the Duval County School Board urging them not to change the name this week when they meet to discuss the issue.

The school is Nathan B. Forrest High School and, as I wrote in this recent post, a petition with nearly 120,000 names on change.org is asking the Florida school district to change the name. Back in April 2007, when the school board was asked by the School Advisory Council to change the name, the panel voted 5-2 against it, but there are new members on the panel now.

Why is the school named after a KKK grand wizard? When it opened in 1959, a number of names were suggested but an organization called the Daughters of the Confederacy somehow won the day with Nathan B. Forrest, who was a Confederate  general in the Civil War and the first  "grand wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, more than half of the school's students are African American. You can read below a description of that 1959 meeting from someone who was there.

The school board is planning to meet Thursday to discuss changing the name, and the  Florida Times-Union newspaper obtained a letter that a current KKK leader wrote to members of the school board, urging them not to change the name at the Jacksonville school. The letter urges the board to take a "decisive stand to protect the name of the school."

The board is more likely to change the name than preserve it.

The change.org petition was written by a man named Omotayo Richmond, who wrote in part:

    I moved to Jacksonville from Long Island 12 years ago. Since then, I've put down roots here. I've helped raise a beautiful daughter here. This place is my home now, and the people who live here deserve better than a high school named for the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.

     

    That's right, Jacksonville is home to Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, named in honor of a Confederate general who infamously slaughtered Black Union soldiers who'd already surrendered and who was a founding member of the original Ku Klux Klan. The school got its name in 1959, when white civic leaders wanted to protest a court decision that called for integrating public schools.

     

    I don't want my daughter, or any student, going to a school named under those circumstances. This is a bad look for Florida — with so much racial division in our state, renaming Forrest High would be a step toward healing...

The KKK letter, which you can read here, was written by someone identified as "Imperial Kaltrop, K Trio, Traditionalist American Knights of The Ku Klux Klan. There are three initials above the name, the first two being D.C. and the last being either a a W or an N. The Traditionalist American Knights of the KKK is a white-supremacy group. The letter says in part:

    It is true and no secret that Nathan Bedford Forrest was appointed first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and carried out his duties as the office demanded of him. What is never taught or reported on in the mainstream media is how or why there was a need for the Klan or 'Ku Klux' as it was originally called. Many say it was to deny the newly emancipated blacks of their rights, and I am sure that there were some men who embraced that concept, but the Klan was born primarily as a fraternity and quickly evolved into a group of vigilance to protect defenseless southerners from criminal activities perpetrated against them by Yankee carpet baggers, scalawags, and many bestial blacks and other criminal elements out for revenge or just taking part in criminal mischief.

The Times-Union quotes Jason Fischer, the Duval County School Board member who scheduled Thursday's meeting, as saying that when he saw the letter, his reaction was to "burn it and wash my hands."

Meanwhile, after I wrote the first post about this issue, I got an e-mail from a woman named Susan Wittenberg Case, who said she was at at the meeting back in 1959 and described what happened. Here's what she said:

    Your short article about this petition couldn't begin to explain the controversy surrounding the naming of this school in the fall of 1959. The school opened without a name and we were packed in like sardines from 7th through 12th grades. I and my brother were in the 7th and 8th grade and we were so excited to learn that we students were going to choose the name of the school, the colors, and the football team's name. A vigorous campaign ensued with proposed names being put up on the board and lively discussions taking place. I remember one proposed name was "Oak Lawn" and the team could be the "Acorns." That name died a well-deserved death, however, when it was pointed out that Oak Lawn was a more appropriate name for a cemetery or a nursing home.

     

    The name that captivated us all and won hands-down was Valhalla High. The team name was the Vikings and colors were orange and white. The boys all liked the idea of the great and fearless Viking warriors and we girls were enthralled with the idea that Valhalla was the name for the Viking heaven. The football jerseys had all been ordered, signs were going up, supplies ordered, logos printed. We were all excitedly awaiting the first game of the season in our brand new junior-senior high school.

     

    A meeting was called and when my parents returned that night I can still see their angry faces. My mother could barely contain her scorn and outrage as she described how the UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy)had pushed through their own agenda to rename MY school after the slave-running drunkard and Ku Klux Klan leader, Nathan Forrest. The team name was the Rebels, and colors were red and grey. We even had a flag now, the old confederate cross. Officially, the school was now General Nathan Bedford Forrest Junior-Senior High School.

     

    Everyone was in an uproar. You should know that many, many of the students were from military families, as I was, and our identity was to the United States primarily, and not to the failed Confederacy or to the south in general. But even the "civilian" kids were angry. We all felt betrayed. We WERE betrayed. Our vote and voice had been stripped away and something really ugly had been inflicted upon us. It took a long time to feel any sense of loyalty to the school and all these years later, I still have contempt for the old biddies of the UDC.

     

    I'd still like to see the name Valhalla resurrected somehow. Valhalla High Vikings has a nice ring to it. But then, what about all the peoples that were terrorized by those fierce sea-faring Norsemen? *sigh* Okay, Oak Lawn it is, then.

[Old Jim]

    If it was renamed the "John Wilkes Booth School of the Performing Arts" would the transplanted Yankee be happy?

[Cheshire Cat]

This like so many other issues will have folks dug in on both sides.  Apparently there is a town hall meeting to discuss the issue this Thursday.  It will be held at Mandarin High School on Hood Road at 6:00 PM.

[fsquid]

This like so many other issues will have folks dug in on both sides.  Apparently there is a town hall meeting to discuss the issue this Thursday.  It will be held at Mandarin High School on Hood Road at 6:00 PM.

Why Mandarin?

[Cheshire Cat]

This like so many other issues will have folks dug in on both sides.  Apparently there is a town hall meeting to discuss the issue this Thursday.  It will be held at Mandarin High School on Hood Road at 6:00 PM.

Why Mandarin?

I haven't a clue.

[sheclown]

    KKK urges DCPS to keep controversial school name

    Thousands fight to change name of local high school

Reported by: Ryan Smith
Email: rsmith@ActionNewsJax.com

Published: 10/02 10:49 pm
Share
Updated: 10/02 11:35 pm

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan is urging the Duval County School Board not to change the name of a local high school.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate Army general, grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and the namesake of a high school on Jacksonville's Westside.

For many, a school name evokes a sense of pride. That hasn't been the case recently at N.B. Forrest High.

More than 117,000 people signed an online petition demanding that the school district change the name.

Organizer Omotayo Richmond argues the name sends the wrong message and represents a man who enslaved, slaughtered and disenfranchised blacks in America.

But not everyone agrees with the petition. Action News obtained a letter sent to all seven Duval County School Board members from the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

"When I found out it was an actual KKK organization I wanted to burn the letter and wash my hands immediately," said school board member Jason Fischer.

Action News reporter Ryan Smith made some calls and tracked the letter back to the Missouri-based group. Smith spoke with the group's leader, who said he stands by it.

The letter asks the school board to "take a decisive stand to protect the name of the school based on the true historical facts surrounding this valiant man of honor."

The letter attempts to defend the KKK, stating the group was born to "protect defenseless southerners from criminal activities perpetrated against them by Yankee carpet baggers ..."

The letter goes on to use a racial slur against African-Americans, which Action News chose not to repeat.

"At first I thought it might be some sort of a gag or political stunt and then as I looked into it, I found out that it was an actual organization ... I was outraged by it," said Fischer.

School board members met last week to discuss the issue. Board member Connie Hall, who represents the area covering N.B. Forrest High, is spending a month gathering feedback from the community before the board makes any decisions.

Fischer is hosting a town-hall meeting to discuss the DCPS budget but predicts the public will bring up the racially-charged issue.

The meeting is open to the public and starts at 6 p.m. Thursday at Mandarin High School.

This isn't the first time there's been an outcry. In 2006, folks suggested changing the name to Eartha M.M. White -- after a Jacksonville philanthropist.

In 2008, the Duval County School Board voted 5-2 to keep the same name, but current Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said he has no problem with change, as long it goes through the proper channels.

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/KKK-urges-DCPS-to-keep-controversial-school-name/mExNDO2dz0SwfNVMPbFqpg.cspx

[mtraininjax]

This is such a waste of taxpayer dollars, at a time when the School Board is flush with cash and goodwill. When was the last time you actually saw the KKK in the paper?

Do any public schools in Jacksonville still have the Indians as their mascot or name of their teams? Is replacing them going to be next? Is Terry Parker still called the Braves?

[Garden guy]

This is such a waste of taxpayer dollars, at a time when the School Board is flush with cash and goodwill. When was the last time you actually saw the KKK in the paper?

Do any public schools in Jacksonville still have the Indians as their mascot or name of their teams? Is replacing them going to be next? Is Terry Parker still called the Braves?

Anyone that thinks that the KKK is gone is either ignorant or a liar..there lots of families where the values and beliefs are being taught to children..ive heard other scoff at the idea on here and you guys are just ignorant to the truth..

[Cheshire Cat]

This like so many other issues will have folks dug in on both sides.  Apparently there is a town hall meeting to discuss the issue this Thursday.  It will be held at Mandarin High School on Hood Road at 6:00 PM.

Why Mandarin?

Okay, the answer is that this is one town meeting of many that will be held throughout the city.

[fsquid]

This is such a waste of taxpayer dollars, at a time when the School Board is flush with cash and goodwill. When was the last time you actually saw the KKK in the paper?

Do any public schools in Jacksonville still have the Indians as their mascot or name of their teams? Is replacing them going to be next? Is Terry Parker still called the Braves?

Anyone that thinks that the KKK is gone is either ignorant or a liar..there lots of families where the values and beliefs are being taught to children..ive heard other scoff at the idea on here and you guys are just ignorant to the truth..

they are not gone, but they are a weak, weak organization on the fringes of society.  As for racism and homophobia being taught to children, that will probably go on forever at a declining rate whether or not there is a KKK or not.

[Cheshire Cat]

This is such a waste of taxpayer dollars, at a time when the School Board is flush with cash and goodwill. When was the last time you actually saw the KKK in the paper?

Do any public schools in Jacksonville still have the Indians as their mascot or name of their teams? Is replacing them going to be next? Is Terry Parker still called the Braves?

Of the many arguments out there regarding the name change, waste of dollars isn't one that will make a difference nor should it.  The costs of the name change would be negligible in a world of real waste.  It is time to remove this thorn from the side of Jacksonville.  It's something that can be done and the reality is now with the KKK opening up their racists mouth's in support of the name, we really have to do something.  The KKK was and is a blight on the face of this country.  Nuff said.