U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in his office on Capitol Hill, in Washington. Lewis, who carried the struggle against racial discrimination from Southern battlegrounds of the 1960s to the halls of Congress, died last Friday.

Susan Walsh / AP Photo

Updated July 23 at 7:05 p.m.

Fairfax County Public Schools has voted to rename Robert E. Lee High School after the late Congressman John Lewis. The name change will take effect during the 2020-2021 school year, though with online learning students won’t see it for themselves until at least next year.

“The name Robert E. Lee is forever connected to the Confederacy, and Confederate values are ones that do not align with our community,” said Lee District School Board member Tamara Derenak Kaufax, who proposed the name change with at-large member Karen Keys-Gamarra, in a press release.

“Our schools must be places where all students, staff, and members of the community feel safe and supported. I believe that John Lewis’ extraordinary life and advocacy for racial justice will serve as an inspiration to our students and community for generations to come.”

Congressman Lewis died last week at the age of 80 after a lifetime spent championing civil rights in Congress and on the streets. He was among activists of the era who denounced racism and civil injustice. He led one of the most historic marches in American history from Selma to Montgomery known as “Bloody Sunday” where demonstrators demanding voting rights for Black Americans were met with police violence.

Lewis’s name was one of four that Fairfax County School Board Superintendent Scott S. Brabrand recommended to the county school board in late June, before the Congressman died. The name was selected at a public meeting Wednesday, before that there was a month-long comment period. Among the other recommendations were former President Barack Obama, civil rights activist Mildred Loving, and American labor leader Cesar Chavez.

Among the list of names community members suggested but not included in School Board Superintendent Scott S. Brabrand’s suggested list were; “A woman Supreme Court justice,” Dred Scott, Ella Fitzgerald, Frederick Douglass, Spike Lee, Michelle Obama, and Robert E. Lee High School.

The decision to change the school’s name comes as jurisdictions in the region and across the country reckon with buildings and monuments named after controversial historical figures, or having, as a petition to remove the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Park puts it, “degrading racial undertones.”

In June, Montgomery County Council agreed unanimously to change streets and buildings named after Confederate figures in a letter to County Executive Marc Elrich and Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson. Earlier this year, Fairfax High School changed the name of its school mascot from “Rebel Pride” to “Fairfax Lions” to remove another tie to the Confederacy. In 1985, the school removed its original mascot depicting a Confederate soldier named “Johnny Reb” in favor of “Rebel Rouser,” and later “Rebel Pride.”

This isn’t the first time the school board approved a name change. In 2017, it voted to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School to Justice High School with a new mascot, the Wolves. The school is named after Barbara Rose Johns, Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Col. Louis G. Mendez, Jr. and “their roles in championing equal rights, inclusivity, and justice.”

Fairfax County School Board revised its policy with regard to changing the school’s name and facilities in Oct. 2019. The new policy states that the school can issue said changes “to ensure an inclusive, respectful learning environment.”

Kaufax requested the school board change the name alongside School Board Member-at-Large Karen Keys-Gamarra in February. In June, she tweeted in support of the decision and called on members of the community to share their ideas for new school names.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Filed Under: board of education, robert e. lee, virginia,