On June 23, school board members in Fairfax County, Virginia, unanimously voted on the decision to rename Robert E. Lee High School after civil rights activist John Lewis.
What We Know:
- The removal of Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s name from the school had been proposed in February by Representative Tamara Derenak Kaufax, one of Fairfax County’s school board members, along with at-large member Karen Keys-Gamarra.
- On Thursday, it was announced that the school will be renamed after the late and great John R. Lewis, which takes effect this school year. “The name Robert E. Lee is forever connected to the Confederacy, and the Confederate values are ones that do not align with our community,” Kaufax said in a news release. “Our schools must be places where all students, staff, and members of the community feel safe and supported. I believe that John Lewis’ extraordinary life and advocacy for racial justice will serve as an inspiration to our students and community for generations to come,” she continued.
- John Lewis was known to be a civil rights activist who fought for racial justice in the 1960s and was one of the marchers to be beaten and shot at during a march on March 7, 1965, also known as Bloody Sunday.
- Lewis was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last December and died on July 17 at the age of 80. Sunday, the body of John Lewis was finally able to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the last time and now there’s talk about the renaming of Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, because it’s named after a Confederate general.
The high school recently made its name change on their website. The renaming of high schools and the removal of confederate monuments come amid Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others, who died at the hands of police officers.
