Reinstating Confederate names may be pushback to racial reckoning, but it harms students

Four years after the uprisings in response to George Floyd’s murder, is the Shenandoah County decision a signal of a wider renaming backlash to come?

Derek Alderman and Jordan Brasher

Guest columnists

• Derek Alderman is a professor of geography at the University of Tennessee.
• Jordan Brasher is a visiting assistant professor in geography at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Media across the nation and globe are reporting on a recent decision by the Shenandoah County Virginia School Board to reinstate the names of Confederate generals to two schools — a first of its kind rollback of Black Lives Matter-inspired reforms.

Mountain View High School will return to honoring Stonewall Jackson and Honey Run Elementary School will revert to Ashby Lee, commemorating Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.

The name restoration came after a conservative capture of the local school board and not coincidentally while America’s schools are under intense pressure to downplay if not sanitize discussions of systemic racism.

These restrictions have thus far most affected the curriculum, but they now could be easily bleeding into the names of schools. It is important that other communities do not follow Shenandoah’s example.

Redeeming the Lost Cause in 2024 causes harms to students today

School names play an under-appreciated role in education as a form of “hidden curriculum.” Students learn about the past – and which beliefs are acceptable and normal in the present – not only from teachers and textbooks but also from school cultural symbols. The name reversal will present challenges to students, teachers and staff struggling to make sense of this hidden curriculum of representing white supremacists as heroes.

Opponents to Confederate reinstatement sense what is at stake. A student from one of the impacted schools stated: “I am a Black student, and if the names are restored, I would have to represent a man that fought for my ancestors to be slaves.”

Those who pushed for restoring Confederate names claimed the original school board decision to drop Jackson, Lee, and Ashby happened without full community input, but public participation is a slippery issue. Achieving “procedural justice” is not just about hearing from as many groups as possible or imposing the will of the majority. It is about the renaming process being informed by and accountable to the experiences of groups negatively impacted by oppressive names.

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Decisions to redeem the Lost Cause in Shenandoah County and similar possibilities in other locations must consider the harm inflicted upon those who learn and work at renamed schools. Commemorative naming is not an innocent preservation of history; it valorizes and publicly endorses associations with certain historical figures and social values.

According to educational researcher Gregg Suzanne Ferguson, our public schools are “a sacred public trust where Americans become socialized and develop their sense of belonging, identity and purpose.”

Put students and teachers at the center of local school decisions

Re-creating an association between public schools and historical defenders of enslavement damages this trust and exposes a central contradiction. Honey Run Elementary’s website states, “we believe in the power of community … and the power of mutual respect.” Why do schools that purport to cultivate community and mutual respect prioritize and affix symbols that celebrate the opposite ideal?

When Dr. Ferguson interviewed Black educators at Confederate-named schools, they noted this disconnect and the ethical impossibilities of incorporating the racist principles of namesakes into school-wide programs and celebrations. Ferguson asserts that while Confederate names on schools exact a deep emotional toll on African Americans, they “send confusing messages to all students and educators about who is worthy of celebration in our country.”

Four years after the uprisings in response to George Floyd’s murder, is the Shenandoah County decision a signal of a wider renaming backlash to come? Do organizations that professed commitments to racial justice from 2020 still hold up today? To avoid a national renaming backlash, we must put student and teacher well-being at the center of local school decisions – from what students can check out from the library and what teachers can teach in the classroom to who is worthy of enshrining as the school’s namesake.

Derek Alderman is a professor of geography at the University of Tennessee, past president of the American Association of Geographers, and a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Place Name Reconciliation.

Jordan Brasher is a visiting assistant professor in geography at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Both Alderman and Brasher publish extensively on public commemoration, place naming and educational institutions as arenas for debates over the past.