Jacksonville High School Named After KKK Founder Will Get a New Name
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Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Florida, has a student body that is mostly black. The school is named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. On December 16, 2013, the school board finally decided to change the name.
In case you're keeping track, that's 42 years since the school was integrated (to the great displeasure of most Jacksonville whites). First Coast News reports that in recent surveys, 64% of Forrest High students supported a name change. (The student body is 61% black.)
The same surveys showed that faculty members, alumni, and "community" members all opposed changing the school's name, by varying majorities.
The Duval County superintendent of schools says that students will be polled to come up with a new name. Thank god. Were the decision left to adults, the school would no doubt be renamed Tim Tebow High, a questionable improvement on the past.
With this name change, as well as the increasing acceptance of the food at the local Pita Pit, Jacksonville, Florida now trails mainstream American culture by only 40 years.
[Photo of a Jacksonville Klan rally, circa 1950: AP]