High School Named After KKK Founder Finally to be Renamed

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Florida, has a student body that is mostly black. The school is named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. On December 16, 2013, the school board finally decided to change the name.

In case you're keeping track, that's 42 years since the school was integrated (to the great displeasure of most Jacksonville whites). First Coast News reports that in recent surveys, 64% of Forrest High students supported a name change. (The student body is 61% black.)

The same surveys showed that faculty members, alumni, and "community" members all opposed changing the school's name, by varying majorities.

The Duval County superintendent of schools says that students will be polled to come up with a new name. Thank god. Were the decision left to adults, the school would no doubt be renamed Tim Tebow High, a questionable improvement on the past.

With this name change, as well as the increasing acceptance of the food at the local Pita Pit, Jacksonville, Florida now trails mainstream American culture by only 40 years.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=338755

I really am not trying to post tons of Florida stories but my state is just really screwed up, and the northern part of the state is way more country than the rest of us

 

[DarkSovereignty]

Before i opened the thread all I could think was "please be Florida, please be Florida, please be Florida." :

Now out before chaester and darthphere start complaining

 

[KevanG]

It took that long with a majority black population. Wow. Go Florida. Some day wimmin might get their uppity ways and get the vote.

 

[Teelie]

I wonder how many who opposed changing the name even knew of the origins? If they knew, would they still support it or would they agree it's wholly inappropriate?

 

[DarkSovereignty]

It's Florida..,they probably knew full well what the origins were

 

[KevanG]

I wonder how many who opposed changing the name even knew of the origins? If they knew, would they still support it or would they agree it's wholly inappropriate?

Ten seconds on google would tell you that. I'm sure many just didn't want a change because it was different.

 

[Thundercrack85]

The irony is that Forrest would probably be mortified to find out there's a school with a predominately black student body named after him.

 

[KevanG]

That would have been interesting to see. It probably would have killed him.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I know where I grew up here in Florida was country adn they love their Klan ties. They don't talk about it openly but they teach it to their children and are proud of it. Although they pretend they are normal human beings around anyone of color

 

[cherokeesam]

Not to defend the damn Klan or anything, but Bedford Forrest had an imprint (bad or good) on history beyond just being "Founder of the KKK." He was a major Confederate general, and there's still plenty of schools, towns, etc. that still proudly carry the names of those such generals and leaders (Lee, Jackson, Davis, etc.) I'm just saying, if you want to avoid offending modern folks by erasing the name of a Confederate general who did bad things to blacks, you might as well stop the idolatry of Robert E. Lee, Jeff Davis, Stonewall Jackson and others (all major slaveholders) in the rest of the South. Might as well include George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, for that matter.

 

[Teelie]

There have already been attempts, successful and not, to rename buildings or institutions from several of them.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Yes, but most of those characters had redeeming / humanizing qualities.

Forrest was an excellent soldier - and a total monster, with no redeeming qualities beyond possibly fearlessness.

Plus he founded the ****ing Klan.

 

[cherokeesam]

Yes, but most of those characters had redeeming / humanizing qualities.

Forrest was an excellent soldier - and a total monster, with no redeeming qualities beyond possibly fearlessness.

Plus he founded the ****ing Klan.

True.
But then again, there's plenty of schools and towns and other civic entities named after George A. Custer, and he was a total monster, with no redeeming qualities beyond possibly fearlessness. America still idolizes genocidists like that bastard, and nobody bats an eye.

 

[redhawk23]

^ So why discourage people when they do bother to bat an eye?

 

[Teelie]

Cynicism is easy.

 

[Thundercrack85]

True.
But then again, there's plenty of schools and towns and other civic entities named after George A. Custer, and he was a total monster, with no redeeming qualities beyond possibly fearlessness. America still idolizes genocidists like that bastard, and nobody bats an eye.

Well, in fairness to Forrest, at least he wasn't a moron like Custer.

But Custer also didn't found a racist militia that killed hundreds, if not thousands of Indians.

And if a high school with a predominately Native American student body wanted to change its name... I think that would be understandable.

 

[NickNitro]

DJ: continuing to perpetuate the notion that FL is just a state filled with racists, drug addicts, morons, and cretins.

Show some love for your state man! lol

 

[Teelie]

Wouldn't there have to be something more to show?

 

[DarkSovereignty]

DJ: continuing to perpetuate the notion that FL is just a state filled with racists, drug addicts, morons, and cretins.

Show some love for your state man! lol

Universal is pretty cool

 

[DarkSentinel]

DJ: continuing to perpetuate the notion that FL is just a state filled with racists, drug addicts, morons, and cretins.

Show some love for your state man! lol

It's not a notion, it's a fact, dammit!!! Florida is rife with moral decay

I wanna move to Colorado

 

[Feenix]

It would be like if Jews attended a school named after Hitler. Those students had every right to want a name change and it's only surprising that it took this long.

 

[jaymes_e06]

Oh Florida you slay me. I once loved that place as far as visiting but damn it is a cesspool down there now.

 

[KevanG]

So are you saying it was fine before but turned into a cesspool after you you were there?

 

[jaymes_e06]

Yes. That's what I'm saying.

 

[Teelie]

That means jaymes corrupted Florida.