TheDuval County (Fla.) School Board has decided not to change the name of Forrest High School, which honors Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general, slave trader and early leader of the Ku Klux Klan. The decision ends two years of controversy about the school, whose student population is predominantly African-American. Betty Burney and Brenda Priestly Jackson, the board's only black members, cast the only two votes to change the name. Priestly Jackson and Burney say the school was named for Forrest in 1958 as a slap in the face to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education to integrate schools. Board members voting to keep the name argue that energy surrounding the issue and the resources it would take the change the name should be directed to helping the school improve its academics. To read The Florida Times-Union article, click here.
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