Petition aims to change name of school named after KKK leader
A petition on change.org is aiming to rename a Jacksonville, Fla. high school named after a Ku Klux Klan leader.
Nathan B. Forrest High School is comprised of mostly African American students.
Omotayo Richmond started the petition which asks Duval Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to change the name.
Richmond says it’s troubling that a school where more than half the students are black is named “for someone who would have kept their ancestors enslaved.”
Forrest was a plantation owner and slave trader. Some accounts accuse him of ordering black prisoners to be massacred after a Confederate army victory. The newly formed Klan elected Forrest as its honorary Grand Wizard in 1867, though he denied involvement.
The petition has nearly 90,000 signatures so far.
A spokeswoman for the district says the policy for changing school names does not include online petitions.
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