The walls inside Washington-Lee High School are covered with painted murals bearing the faces of its namesakes, George Washington and Robert E. Lee. But for the first time since the Arlington school’s inception in 1925, those images could soon be wiped away.
A renaming committee made up of alumni, parents, and current students have put forth two options which could replace the name of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in its moniker.
“Whether you respect the fact that he fought for the state, that’s one thing,” says W-L senior and renaming committee member Jack Holt. “But he was a traitor who fought for slavery and confederacy.”Sasha-Ann Simons / WAMU
“Lee was a racist symbol that got put on Washington-Lee,” says Jack Holt, a senior at the school. “He was a traitor, and I don’t think his name should be on any building where kids get educated.”
Holt is one of many committee members who want Lee’s name gone because of his legacy of fighting to preserve slavery.
A Controversial Debate, Rooted In A Controversial History
The 21-member committee began its work in September. After months of deliberating, the group recommended changing the school’s name to Washington-Loving after the Virginia couple who successfully challenged the state’s ban on interracial marriages before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and black and Native American woman, were jailed for being married to each other.
The committee’s alternative name is Washington-Liberty High School. Before landing on Loving and Liberty, Holt says the group also discussed keeping the name Lee—but in honor of a different historical figure with that last name. Discussions involving To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, a former Virginia congressional representative who signed the Declaration of Independence, were short-lived.
“Some people thought it was a cop-out, which I kind of agree with,” Holt says of keeping the name Lee.
The renaming effort has been a controversial one throughout the community, with three Washington-Lee students suing the school to block the name change.Tyrone Turner / WAMU
The recommendations have been passed on to the Arlington County School Board, which will have the final say.
The renaming process at Washington-Lee has been contentious. According to Holt, disgruntled alumni and community members interrupted the biweekly committee meetings and held up signs in protest. After that, a police officer was present for the gatherings. And a school district representative says two committee members have since resigned.
Last June, three Washington-Lee students—who cannot be named because they are minors—filed a lawsuit to block the name change. The students argue the school board didn’t follow its own criteria for the renaming process.
“They threw out the process, and the timetable and what they had told the community they were going to do, and they just precipitously decided [they’re] going to change the name,” says Jon Moseley, the students’ attorney.
Moseley says his clients claim there wasn’t enough community involvement from the start, and that a new name will tarnish the school’s good reputation.
“They think that jobs won’t recognize the new name and that for some of their athletic opportunities and their music opportunities, people won’t immediately recognize a new name,” says Moseley.
On Wednesday, a judge threw out the lawsuit brought by the students, but dismissed it without prejudice, meaning the students have the option to try again.
A National Movement
The debate in Arlington comes as part of a broader, national push. In the past few years, white supremacist violence has prompted many Americans to call for the removal of Confederate monuments and the renaming of schools honoring Confederate leaders.
Students at D.C.’s Lawrence Boone Elementary school are still adjusting to the recent change from its previous name Orr Elementary, after former D.C. mayor and slaveholder Benjamin Grayson Orr. Last year, the Fairfax County School Board voted to change J.E.B. Stuart High School to Justice High School for similar reasons.
“To celebrate [Lee] always seemed a little weird. But I sort of accepted it, until Charlottesville,” says Nikki Roy, a parent of three Washington-Lee graduates who says the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville changed his views.
Roy, a 27-year Arlington resident, says he and his wife attended separate school board hearings on the renaming over the past year. He promptly applied and was accepted, when the board sought to form the renaming committee.
Board members hope to have a new name for Washington-Lee High School in time for the 2019-2020 school year.Tyrone Turner / WAMU
With two names on the table, the committee’s work is now finished, and the rest is up to the Arlington County School Board. Roy says he hopes that future Washington-Lee students will be given a history lesson on how the school’s new name came to be.
“There’s a great opportunity to talk about what the name was, why it was that name and why folks thought it was important to change it,” says Roy. “And I really hope they take advantage of that.”
School Renaming: The Road Ahead
Arlington Public Schools recently drafted a new set of rules around building names. When facilities are named after an individual, APS will consider the person’s principal legacy—the key accomplishment they’re known for—and whether it “aligns with the school district’s core values and beliefs.”
The school board is scheduled to discuss the two names on Dec. 20, and its members will cast their votes at a meeting on Jan. 10. The board hopes to have a new name in time for the 2019-2020 school year.
This story was originally published on WAMU.
