ROANOKE, Va. (AP) 鈥� A federal judge has sided with the Virginia NAACP against a county school board鈥檚 to two schools, saying the decision discriminated against Black students and ordering the board to change the schools’ monikers again.
In an opinion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Virginia, Judge Michael F. Urbanski said the school board in Shenandoah County violated Black students鈥� rights under the 14th Amendment鈥檚 equal protection clause, which forbids racial discrimination in state-supported institutions. The decision also violates the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, the court found.
Confederate army officers’ names are 鈥渧estiges鈥� of Shenandoah County’s segregationist history that required separate schools for Black and white students.
鈥淭he Confederate names were restored with complete awareness of their historic legacy and ongoing discriminatory impact,鈥� Urbanski wrote. 鈥淚n the court鈥檚 view, the affirmative act of reinstating these vestiges of segregation is far more problematic than a passive failure to remove a long-standing name or symbol.鈥�
The judge ordered the board to settle on new school names 鈥渙n a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed.鈥�
Unlike memorials named after Confederate figures, schools are places where children should have an 鈥渆ducational environment free of vestiges of racial discrimination,鈥� Urbanski added.
Jim Guynn, the attorney representing Shenandoah County, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
In a statement Friday, the NAACP Virginia State Conference called the ruling 鈥渁 decisive victory” for students.
鈥淔or decades, the practice of honoring Confederate leaders in Virginia schools has been steeped in a history of racial discrimination,鈥� said its president, the Rev. Cozy Bailey. 鈥淭he school board鈥檚 2024 renaming decision is impossible to explain except through the lens of race.”
The Washington Lawyers鈥� Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs represented the NAACP.
鈥淭he court acknowledged that such names inflict real, racially disproportionate harm,” said Kaitlin Banner, deputy legal director.
The Virginia NAACP filed the suit on behalf of six students and their parents in June 2024 after the school board voted 5-1 to change Mountain View High School back to High School and Honey Run Elementary back to Ashby-Lee Elementary, which combines the names of Gen. Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby, a Confederate cavalry officer. The board reversed a 2020 decision to remove the original names against a backdrop of nationwide protests over racial injustice.
The NAACP argued in its lawsuit that Black students, who make up less than 3% of the school system鈥檚 population, would be 鈥渞equired against their will to endorse the violent defense of slavery pursued by the Confederacy and the symbolism that these images have in the modern White supremacist movement.鈥�
Under President Donald Trump’s second administration, some statues honoring Confederate figures after being removed in 2020. It is part of to control how American history is framed at Smithsonian museums, monuments in national parks and in classrooms.
Board members who voted to restore the Confederate names popular community sentiment. They said the previous board members who voted to remove the names in 2020 had ignored constituents and due process on the matter.
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