Nathan Bedford Forrest High featured on FoxNews.com

[RiversideGator]

RG I now see the method and reasoning behind your post here and in the political section I see the truth.   

Which is?

[Keith-N-Jax]

 

[RiversideGator]

Please dont be so presumptuous as to state that I do not understand something.  As for my qualifications, I have a degree in History.  How about you?  As for the issue of slavery, I did not say that it was not an issue.  I said it was not the ONLY issue.  As for slavery itself, certainly it was an evil but there was a better way to end it than to kill 600,000 Americans.

BTW, perhaps you should look up Lincoln's own statements about slavery and secession.  He basically said he would keep slavery to save the Union or he would end slavery to save the Union.  This is hardly a ringing endorsement for your view that the War was solely about slavery.

You're obviously in denial that the Civil War was fought over slavery and that Nathan Bedford Forrest was a founder of the KKK. Being you're a fan of Wikipedia. I'll just throw out these two links for you to read so you can brush up on the Civil War and the founder the KKK. 

Please do not attempt to be condescending to me.  You do not have the knowledge or the qualifications.  As for wikipedia, I can always supply direct sources if you require them.  Perhaps then you could stop attacking the source and actually discuss the issues.

And, again, I did not say that slavery was not an issue in the Civil War.  I said it was not the ONLY issue.  Finally, why does this make you so angry?

But alas I'm tired of arguing about it with you. You obviously have your distorted view of both of them that I'm not going to change. Just sucks that the five white members of the Duval County School Board have the same distorted view as you. Imagine that in such a progressive city like Jacksonville, not!

What does race have to do with this issue?

And, how did such a fine progressive such as yourself end up in a horrid place like Jacksonville and why do you stay?   

[RiversideGator]

[uptowngirl]

The war of northern agression is alive and well, and has nothing to do with slavery.....

[BridgeTroll]

Maybe we should change Forrest to... Sherman and Lee to um...er... Grant?

[downtownparks]

How about or Jackson HS, or Jefferson HS, or Columbus HS, or Sherman HS, or Ford HS. I think we need to talk about renaming Jacksonville. Andrew Jackson was a slave owner and Seminole Killer.

History is a dirty place when you start digging down into it. Forrest's biggest sin was being on the losing end of a war.

[fsujax]

I graduated from Lee High and the whole time I was there no one ever said anything about the name. To me it's our Southern history. It is a part of Jacksonville's history. Lee at the time was probably the most racially diverse school in Duval County, we had people from all walks of life and we were proud to be the Lee Generals!

[thelakelander]

His biggest sin was being a founder of the KKK.  I think its a waste of time to go around changing names we now find offensive.  We have a rich dirty crooked history but we might as well as accept it and move on.  This school was named during an era of when we were a racist backwater town that did not want to accept minorities as equals.  Cherish it as something that shows where we've been and where we don't want to go back to.  They say if you don't know your past, you're bound to repeat it.  How does Cowford sound?

[JeffreyS]

I am not a big name changer I still wish we were our original name Port Caroline.  NFB however seems like an insult to the kids who go there and they should be a bigger concern than the history of the name.  Sometimes names take on a different connotation than they once had.  We wouldn't want a group of Jewish students to attend a school with the fighting Aryans as a mascot and a swastika flying overhead even if what those things symbolize isn't the original image of that flag and those people.

[copperfiend]

The biggest reason if there were a name change, I think it would be justified is this.

Forrest High got its name in 1959, when the Daughters of the Confederacy, angry about the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision forcing school integration, pushed for the name.

All 2,300 of the school's students were white at the time. Now, 54 percent are black, and some feel it's time to change the school's name.

Ok so change it, but then they better go from an "F" to at least a "B" if the name is what is jacking them all up.....

I don't hear a big uproar from the faculty or student body regarding the name. It's from people who have no real connection to the school.

[JeffreyS]

I don't hear a big uproar from the faculty or student body regarding the name. It's from people who have no real connection to the school.

Would you? Do you have contact with the students or staff.  I used to be in that school occasionally I never heard anything along those lines.  But it isn't like a student would just come up to some random adult and start talking about this.  Plenty of students have been quoted throughout the years on both sides.  I guess I do not know how it would make black students feel as I am a wasp who went to another school. However as a human who can empathize with others I feel like it is a safe bet that to some it is offensive enough to warrens change.

[copperfiend]

I don't hear a big uproar from the faculty or student body regarding the name. It's from people who have no real connection to the school.

Would you? Do you have contact with the students or staff.  I used to be in that school occasionally I never heard anything along those lines.  But it isn't like a student would just come up to some random adult and start talking about this.  Plenty of students have been quoted throughout the years on both sides.  I guess I do not know how it would make black students feel as I am a wasp who went to another school. However as a human who can empathize with others I feel like it is a safe bet that to some it is offensive enough to warrens change.

I am a Forrest grad, my father taught there and I have a niece that is a freshman. I've been around the school for 20 years. It's not a big point of contention among those inside the school.

[collegeguy89]

His biggest sin was being a founder of the KKK.  I think its a waste of time to go around changing names we now find offensive.  We have a rich dirty crooked history but we might as well as accept it and move on.  This school was named during an era of when we were a racist backwater town that did not want to accept minorities as equals.  Cherish it as something that shows where we've been and where we don't want to go back to.  They say if you don't know your past, you're bound to repeat it.  How does Cowford sound?

Why would you want to identify and be proud of history that is synonymous with racial bigotry and ignorance? That is hardly something to be proud of. Regardless of whether people complain about the name or not, the fact that people defend the name suggests that they support the man who it was named after and what he stood for, which is racism and white supremacism. I am a white college student myself by the way, for all who are curious.

If the name isn't a big deal, don't make it one and let the activists change it. Don't be lured into the whole we're southern lets be proud of our racist heritage mantra.

[thelakelander]

I don't identify with him, i'm not proud of the impacts of his actions on my race and I believe he will rot in hell for his time on earth.  Both sides of my family tree disappear into plantations in Georgia and Florida.  I'm the last one that will be lured into being proud of our southern heritage.  However, I do accept what happened in the past as factual historical events.  Its something I can't erase or take back. 

Our area was and still is loaded with racism and extreme ignorance of cultures we personally aren't comfortable with.  Our history, zoning codes and built environment of today are products of these views.  We can't run a way from it.  Its all around us.  Personally, my opinion is to acknowledge the past and focus on major improvements that can make the city a better place for everyone. 

Overall, I could care less of if the school name changed or stayed the same.  I'll sleep the same at night either way.  The high school name change is not my fight.  Perhaps if my kids went there, I'd feel different.  If the students, their families, the neighborhoods surrounding it and the school board want it changed, you won't find me standing in their way.