Confederate General's Descendant Rebukes Decision to Honor His Ancestor

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published May 11, 2024 at 1:02 PM EDT | Updated May 11, 2024 at 2:49 PM EDT


A descendant of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson has rebuked a decision from a Virginia county school board to honor his ancestor on CNN's First of All With Victor Blackwell on Saturday. On Friday, the Shenandoah County School Board voted to restore the names of two schools that were previously named after Civil War Confederate generals.

In July 2021, Stonewall Jackson High and Ashby Lee Elementary were renamed Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School as schools across the country have done with names and symbols associated with the Confederacy following Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that hit a peak in 2020.

However, the school district, which is predominantly white and Republican, became the first to reverse its Confederate name-stripping. After the 5-1 vote, the elementary and high school will go back to their previous names honoring three well-known Confederate generals—Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson and Turner Ashby.

Jackson worked alongside Lee, commander the Army of Northern Virginia, during much of the Civil War. Jackson and his troops played an instrumental part in several battles—the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of Chancellorsville. Newsweek reached out to the chairman of the Shenandoah County School Board Dennis Barlow via email for comment.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/stonewall-jackson-descendant-rebukes-decision-rename-school-1899572

[TexasDem69]

1. Southwest Virginia is one of the most beautiful places in the U.S.

But it’s also got a lot of openly racist citizens. This vote isn’t surprising.

[underpants]

2. Shenandoah is up 81 near Harrisonburg. NW Va I guess you'd say

We’ve got racists everywhere.

[TexasDem69]

3. True, true

[erronis]

4. Yup. Harrisonburg is a bit of a rarity in the Shenandoah Valley

It has changed from overwhelmingly (R) to strongly (D).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrisonburg,_Virginia#Politics

Back when I lived in that neck of the woods, western VA up into the Shenandoahs was very, ahem, backwoods/RW with plenty of NJ (nut jobs) thrown in.)

There's been a tremendous influx of the more liberal DC crowd buying retirement homes in the hills/mountains and causing a fair amount of angst for the good ole boys.

Another town that has had an incredible shift is Winchester, VA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrisonburg,_Virginia#Politics

[underpants]

5. Part of the Valley & west was going to be shaped for Ollie North

Back when the GA was dominated by the Republicans, there was some talk of carving out a congressional district that would have been a gift to Ollie North. He ran for Senate and thankfully Marshall Coleman (at John Warner’s request) got in and took away enough votes for Robb to stay in office. It cost Coleman his marriage which must’ve been near the tipping point anyway. His wife wanted no more of DC or that life.

[keithbvadu2]

7. Yes. Ollie did not want to live with his SW constituents, so they carved out a pencil thin district that ran up

the west side of the state to his home near DC.

[bringthePaine]

6. recruit this guy for office! realz

[AverageOldGuy]

8. Check out the Wikipedia article about:

Massive Resistance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_resistance

Short version: Virginia refused to integrate their schools in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. This "massive resistance" movement was led by then-Senator Harry F. Byrd, one of the Byrd's of VA, an old-line white supremacist Democratic family. Some counties even closed their schools for a few years rather than integrate.

It was during this period of massive resistance that these two schools in Shenandoah County were named for Lee, Jackson, and Ashby. I don't know the original schools' names but the Confederate names were part of "massive resistance" -- that is "We'll show those damnyankees and their n####r allies that they can't make our little white girls go to school with those black beasts."

School boards across the State have been renaming, dumping the Confederate names, however, as you can guess, renaming is not popular among the assholes who are saving their Confederate money for when the South rises again.

[LiberalFighter]

9. So they want schools named after losers

[yardwork]

10. Clinging to a fantasy past that never existed, instead of moving forward.

Too many people in the U.S. cling to useless false myths about the past instead of creating something new out of what they've been given. Weirdly, it's the people who have the most who refuse to appreciate it. Always looking back with resentment and longing.

Weird.

[czarjak]

16. It wasn't losing. It was alternative winning.

[FakeNoose]

11. Great-great-grandson of Stonewall Jackson

Quote from OP:

The great-great-grandson of Jackson, Warren Christian, joined the dissenting voices of the decision to restore Shenandoah County's school names. Christian told CNN's Victor Blackwell on Saturday morning that he was "saddened" and "disappointed" in the decision. However, he added: "As a firm believer in democracy, public schooling and local control of schools, I respect their right to rename the school, and I respect their right to do what is morally wrong."

Jackson's descendant talked of a "courageous" eighth grade student named Aaliyah "who stood up in front of the school board and she said, 'I'm a Black student and if the names are restored, I would have to represent a man who fought for my ancestors to be slaves. That makes me feel like I'm disrespecting my ancestors and going against what my family and I believe.'"

Christian questioned how the school board could vote to restore the names "after that brave student and others so clearly and cogently explained how that this would harm them."

Once the current generation of RWNJs dies off, the next generation will know how to handle this.

[BradBo]

12. Racist will be racist, that stuff never changes.

[azureblue]

13. Even R. E. Lee and J. Davis

at the end of the civil war, said the South should put this behind, and mover forward to reconciliation.

[moondust]

14. Stonewall and the boys

were just tourists attacked by them northern aggressors. Of course their Holy Father told them to fight back against the evil invaders who wanted to take away their God-given right to own the chattel that allowed them to maximize their holy profits.

[bmichaelh]

15. Confederacy was not noble

Confederate generals were not honorable.

What is barely mentioned about the Confederacy:

When Confederate troops went north, many engaged in slave hunts in Maryland and Pennsylvania.