KKK begs officials to keep school named after racist leader
A couple of weeks ago, we reported about a petition aiming to change the name of a school named after a KKK founder.
Now, a Ku Klux Klan chapter in Florida is protesting the effort.
The school, Nathan Bedford Forrest High School was named after a Confederate general who helped found the hate group.
Omotayo Richmond, whose daughter attends the school, started the petition.
“I don’t want my daughter, or any student, going to a school named under those circumstances,” said parent Omotayo Richmond, who started the petition drive. “This is a bad look for Florida — with so much racial division in our state, renaming Forrest High would be a step toward healing.”
White civic leaders chose to name the school after the racist leader in 1959 in protest of court orders to integrate public schools. In a letter sent to the board, Klan members argue that the group has a bad wrap and Forrest “carried out his duties as the office demanded of him.”
So far Richmond’s petition has over 157,000 signatures of people asking the school board to change the name.
Duval County School Board members voted 5-2 to keep the name in 2008. None of those who voted in favor currently serve on the board.
Unbelievable.
The KKK is a joke.
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