Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion What’s in a name? Everything, if it honors treason and slavery.

A school board said renaming schools after Confederates was honoring the community’s heritage. Readers had other ideas.

May 17, 2024 at 2:56 p.m. EDT
Workers placed the metal face on top of the furnace to preheat it as the Charlottesville statue of Robert E. Lee is melted down. (Hadley Green/The Washington Post)
8 min

Regarding the May 11 Metro article “Confederate names are restored at two schools”:

When the Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 to restore the names of Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, one board member praised Jackson, saying: “When you read about this man — who he was, what he stood for, his character, his loyalty, his leadership, how godly a man he was — those standards that he had were much higher than any leadership of the school system in 2020.”