Texas judge starts petition to keep schools named after Confederate general
The Midland school board voted Monday to rename Robert E. Lee Senior and Robert E. Lee Freshman high schools, the latest district in Texas to remove its ties to the Confederacy and slavery.
But not everyone in this West Texas city is thrilled with the change.
Midland County Judge Terry Johnson started a petition to keep the name after the board’s meeting, The Midland Reporter-Telegram reported.
“History is not for anyone to censor,” Johnson wrote on the site Move On.org. “To cave into current political correctness is to keep it going.”
As of 5:30 p.m. Central Time, the petition has over 450 signatures.
“I graduated from there in 73,” Johnson told the Reporter-Telegram after being asked why he was fighting to keep the controversial name.
“Hate to see my history erased,” he said. “Not mad just felt like I should allow others to have a voice along with me.”
Board president Rick Davis said that changing the name was “a matter of conscience,” Everything Lubbock reported.
“Voting to change the name was not an effort to erase history; instead remembering history is what caused us to change the name of the school that was so named in 1960 in a misguided attempt to honor such history at that particular time in our history,” Davis said. “But this decision was much more than simply righting a past wrong concerning the name of a high school. It was also about moving forward to reflect the character of our remarkable community.“
A petition to change the name of the Midland high school was started in June by resident Courtney Ratliff and garnered more than 10,000 online signatures.
“For many, the name of the school, the mascot, and the Confederate symbols used to celebrate success have caused pain for decades and continues to do so,” Ratliff said to NewsWest 9.
Midland’s Robert E. Lee schools are two of 47 public schools in Texas that bare the name of the Confederate general, according to Education Weekly.
Over the past few weeks, however, following the death of George Floyd while in police custody and the protests the incident sparked, a movement to remove statues, monuments and school names that have historical ties to slavery has gained momentum.
Nationwide, almost 20 percent of the 208 schools with names tied to the Confederacy have been changed, according to Forbes.
A handful of those are in Texas.
On July 16, the Tyler school district voted to rename its two high schools, named after Robert E. .Lee and John Tyler, the nation’s president from 1841-45 and a slave owner. Trude Lamb, a cross-country runner at Tyler Lee High School refused to wear the athletic jersey that carries Lee’s name, McClatchy News reported. Lamb, who was adopted in Ghana, started a petition of her own to change the name of her Texas school and wrote a letter to the Tyler school district board of trustees, painting a picture of her homeland’s ties to slavery.
“I have stood in the dungeons of the slave castle and seen the three foot urine and feces stains on the walls where my brothers and sisters were kept,” the letter states. “I’ve seen the tiny hole at the top of the ceiling where they would throw food in to the captured souls.”
On July 14, the Grand Prairie school district voted to change the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary School to that of educator Delmas Morton, who worked in the district for more than 40 years, NBC5 reported.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 7:45 PM.