Photo: Equal Justice Initiative
ATLANTA, Ga. — Recently, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) updated its Whose Heritage? database, which found 100 additional schools glorifying Confederate leaders scattered across the country. To date, there are 45 public schools across Georgia named in honor of Confederate leaders, the most in the nation, followed by Texas (40) and Alabama (22).
Thirty-five (35) of those schools are located in counties with Confederate namesakes.
Currently, our Whose Heritage? report lists 198 schools named after Confederate leaders as “live,” and at least 80 of those schools were named after a county or town that honors a Confederate leader. As discussed during SPLC’s August 12th School Renaming press briefing, many of these schools are located in Black or nonwhite communities.
Other new data revealed in the most recent Whose Heritage? data drop:
- Eighty-five (85) schools honoring Confederate leaders have closed or been renamed.
- Seventeen (17) schools have committed to changing their names but have not yet done so. Texas (5), South Carolina (4), Alabama (3), and Virginia (3) are procrastinating.
View a complete list of the schools named after Confederate leaders here.
To learn about the history of Confederate symbols, visit the SPLC’s Whose Heritage? report.
The following statement is from SPLC Chief of Staff Lecia Brooks:
“This state is filled with worthy Georgians whose names schools would be proud to carry. But at least 45 of Georgia’s public schools stand firmly on the wrong side of history, elevating men who fought to keep the U.S. divided.
“Adding insult to injury, many of these namesake schools are located in communities serving a majority of People of Color, honoring men that denied them an equal education. What lessons does this teach our children?
“Georgia is not the only state elevating the names of proslavery men on our important buildings and institutions. School districts across the United States need to not only eliminate the revisionist racist propaganda used throughout their curricula, but also remove any and all imagery glorifying the Confederacy located on and around school property in the form of monuments, statues, plaques, markers, mascots, and street names.
“While we call on all 198 schools honoring Confederates to change their names, we will continue to call on the Cobb County School Board to listen to student activists leading this charge. This board needs to take a hard, honest look at the Wheeler Name Change group’s research proposal which factually details the harms the Confederacy continues to inflict upon not only Black students, but all Wheeler high school students.”
For more information, visit www.splcenter.org.
