12 www.minorityreporter.net |JANUARY 6 - 12 | 2014
NATIONAL
SCLC Wins Historic Victory In School Name Change from KKK Leader
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) has assisted in scoring a major
victory against the relics of racism
in Jacksonville, Florida as the Duval
County School Board last week voted
7 – 0 to change the name of Nathan B.
Forrest High School.
The School was named after Forrest,
the first Grand Wizard of the Ku
Klux Klan, in 1959 when the United
Daughters of the Confederacy
successfully lobbied the city of
Jacksonville to rename the school in
response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s
Brown v. Board of Education decision
which outlawed segregation in schools
and public accommodations.
According to community activists
in Jacksonville, there have been
numerous attempts to change the
name of the school over the last
fifty year, but those attempts were
unsuccessful. This time around
organizers argued that the name of
the school was “an embarrassment to
the city.”
“Because of the many failed attempts
there weren’t very many people who
were confident that it would happen,”
said Opio Sokoni – the local SCLC
President in Jacksonville. “We got it
done because the city saw that the
activists were unified and took high
quality actions to educate the public
about who this man was.”
“It was very hard for those wanting to
keep the name to overcome Forrest’s
record of atrocities,” added Sokoni.
According to Sokoni, Nathan B. Forrest
amassed his fortunes in the late
eighteen hundreds buying, selling and
enslaving human beings in Tennessee.
He also employed slave catchers that
would capture enslaved human beings
who were seeking freedom. During
the U.S. Civil War, he is best known
for being responsible for the worst
massacre during that conflict. He was
reported as giving the orders to kill
over three hundred surrendering,
Black Union soldiers, women and
children at Fort Pillow. Soldiers who
wrote about the affair said that the
river ran red for over 200 yards from
the blood of the slaughtered.
Last month, the Duval County School
Board voted to go through the process
to see whether the name would
be changed. That process included
surveys given to the students, alumni
and the surrounding community.
There were also several forums where
the community could voice their
opinion on the issue. Both sides were
in attendance and made impassioned
arguments for their sides.
The SCLC led an action that pulled
together a coalition of organizations
which included the Jacksonville
Progressive Coalition, Change.org, the
New Jim Crow Movement, the NAACP
and the Florida New Majority- as well
as a few individuals. One of those
individuals was Omotayo Richmond
who placed a petition on Change.org
which gained close to two hundred
thousand signatures from around the
country.
___
Sokoni claims that organizers were
able to utilize technology and an old
Civil Rights strategy to help tip the
scales in their favor.
“Just like the 1960s Birmingham
movement, we took children out of
school, went to the major streets
near the school, and while buses of
students passed by we held up signs
advertising our position,” said Sokoni.
“We caught the morning and evening
traffic which also included parents
going to work. We then wrote letters
to board members and used social
media to create the buzz among the
students and throughout the city.”
The tally from the surveys showed
that two thirds of the students voted
in support of the name change. The
next step is for the school to vote on
a new name and mascot – The school
currently goes by the Rebels and
incorporates the Confederate flag as
part of its mascot.
“This was for the children, said Sokoni.
“Now they can lift their heads up high
and show their diplomas with pride.”
AUTO
& COLLISION
Expert Collision Repair on ALL MAKES
BRING YOUR AUTO INSURANCE CLAIM
AND I WILL
SAVE YOU MONEY!
DON’T LET THE INSURANCE
COMPANY DICATATE WHERE
TO HAVE YOUR VEHICLE
REPAIRED ...
TAKE IT WHERE YOUWANT!
1343 HUDSON AVENUE | ROCH, NY
We want to know what YOU think!
Email us at: [email protected]
LET YOUR VOICE MAKE A DIFFERENCE!