Education

Virginia Schools Change Confederate Names With $20,000 Donation

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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A Virginia school district changed names for three of its schools named after Confederate generals on Tuesday after receiving a $20,000 donation.

Petersburg City Public Schools changed the signage for school named after Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee, A.P. Hill, and J.E.B. Stuart to Lakemont Elementary, Cool Spring Elementary, and Pleasants Lane Elementary, respectively, reported WSLS.com.

To fund the rebranding, the district used a $20,000 donation from an anonymous donor, who said she made the contribution to support racial justice.

The Petersburg schools are not the first in Virginia to change their names to shed perceived baggage attached to Confederate names. Richmond decided to rename its last Confederate school in April and J.E.B. Stuart High School in Fairfax dropped its first three letters in an attempt to erase its Confederate reference. (RELATED: Virginia School Drops 3 Letters In Name To Try To Erase Confederate General Reference)

Cities across the country have also removed Confederate statues and other landmarks after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. The Southern Poverty Law Center counted the removal of 110 or more Confederate statues since Dylann Roof’s Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting in 2015, with more than 1,700 of the monuments remaining. At that rate of removal, the memorials could be gone in 50 years.

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