Movement to change names of Montgomery schools with Confederate ties gains momentum

Outrage over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has rekindled an effort to rename schools in Montgomery that have a connection to the Confederacy, both among activists, organizations and a Montgomery County Board of Education member. 

A petition created on Change.org calling for the names of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Sidney Lanier high schools to be changed has garnered nearly 15,000 signatures within two days. 

Gen. Robert E. Lee was a Confederate military leader, Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate States of America and Sidney Lanier was a poet who became known as the "Poet of the Confederacy," He also served as a private in the Confederate Army.

"As a former Montgomery Public Schools student I have always wondered how students were expected to excel while attending a school named after individuals who supported the enslavement and mistreatment of their ancestors," the creator of the petition, Dave Steele, wrote. 

Marche Johnson, an alum of Lee High and former city council candidate, said when she was sent the petition, it had just 12 signatures. Since, she's pushed it into several alumni groups and organizations that support the cause. 

"This is the time to move forward and actually show action behind the words," Johnson said, referring to MPS' "Moving Forward" motto. 

Conversations regarding the names of the schools heightened after four people were arrested Monday night for allegedly removing the statue of Lee from its pedestal in front of the namesake school. Monday was also a state holiday commemorating Confederate President Jefferson Davis' birthday.

A judge dropped the charges on Thursday. District Judge Pamela Higgins signed an order to drop the first-degree criminal mischief cases against all four, after the District Attorney's office filed motions asking to do so claiming there were legal errors in the documents. The charges, however, could be refiled later. 

Bernard Simelton, president of Alabama's NCAAP, said the organization is in support of changing the schools' names and the removal off all Confederate icons on public property. 

"We want those things removed," Simelton said. "If they want to put them in a museum, that’s fine, but they should not be on public display as something you are proud of. ... These are symbols that that reminds us that if the Union did not win, then I would not be going into these places. I would still be in bondage."

In order to change the names of the schools', MPS would need to submit a waiver to the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act committee, requesting permission. The act, which passed in 2017, prevents the renaming or removal of monuments and buildings more than 40 years old without legislative approval.

In terms of the Lee statue, the district has up to one year to either complete necessary repairs and return the statue to its pedestal, or request a waiver to have it permanently removed. If the district does not, the law indicates there would be a $25,000 fine issued. 

According to 'Echoes' of Robert E. Lee High School, a book written in part by former MPS Superintendent Clinton Carter, the school has spent thousands over the years repairing vandalism to the statue. 

"Recent estimates to replicate and replace the statue range from $45,000 in copper and bronze to $25,000 in aluminum," the book, published in 2015, states. 

District 5's MPS board member Jannah Bailey said she called and left a message with the chair of the committee, Alyce Spruell, Thursday morning to get information on how to submit a waiver to change the names.

While she prefers to go through the process laid out by the act, Bailey said she feels it's wrong that local governments cannot make these decisions on their own. 

"As far as I'm concerned, it's all based on racism," she said, referring to both the act and to the names of the schools. 

More:MPS board member Jannah Bailey blames lack of financial support for schools on racism

Looking at the history and opening of the schools, Bailey said the names are rooted in the desire to keep Montgomery's public schools segregated. 

Lee was opened in 1955 as an all-white school, months after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ordered the desegregation of all schools. At that time, Lee's marching band wore Confederate uniforms and the school newspaper was called the “Stars and Bars,” a reference to the nickname of the Confederate national flag.

A decade later and a century after the end of the Civil War, a three-person committee gave its suggestions for the names of three new schools being built. The committee suggested the Carter Hill Road high school be named, “in memory of Jefferson Davis, the first and last president of the Confederate States of America.”

The name was unanimously approved, according to board minutes.

The Equal Justice Initiative released an article Wednesday, titled "A Robert E. Lee Statue and the Legacy of White Supremacy," explaining the history behind the school's creation. 

"The history of Robert E. Lee High School, and its relationship to this statue, is rooted in the massive resistance campaign that white people in Alabama and throughout the South waged to maintain school segregation," the article states. 

It points to previous movements to rename the school and the current petition that, at the time the article was published, had about 2,500 signatures. 

To submit a waiver, the MPS school board would first need to vote to do so. From that point, if the committee does not approve the waiver, Bailey said she believes there would be community support to still change the names. 

"I've already gotten a number of emails and calls that said 'We will raise the money to pay the fine'," Bailey said. 

Aside from paying a fine, though, removing the names from these schools would cost the district. 

Other districts across the country have estimated the cost of changing a name — because of building renovations, uniform changes and more — at hundreds of thousands of dollars

To offset the costs, one district, in San Antonio, Texas, chose to change its name from Robert E. Lee High to L.E.E. High, with the acronym standing up ‘Legacy of Educational Excellence.’ 

Another school in Houston, Texas, similarly used this approach, renaming Sidney Lanier Middle School to Bob Lanier Middle, a former mayor of the city.  

Pointing to the names of G.W. Carver and Booker T. Washington high schools, Bailey said it's not just about these being the names of two black men, but about them being men who did things for all of humanity, not just the Confederacy.

"The majority of the children that go to those schools now are black and brown. Every day they go to school it’s a reminder of the horrible past," she said. 

The next MPS board meeting is Tuesday, June 9. Whether or not Superintendent Ann Roy Moore will propose submitting a waiver, either for the statue removal or the name changes, was not immediately clear. 

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.