Muad Dib High School???? WTF

Duval Public Schools: No more KKK High School



Petition by

Omotayo Richmond

Jacksonville, FL



I moved to Jacksonville from Long Island 12 years ago. Since then, I've put down roots here. I've helped raise a beautiful daughter here. This place is my home now, and the people who live here deserve better than a high school named for the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.

That's right, Jacksonville is home to Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, named in honor of a Confederate general who infamously slaughtered Black Union soldiers who'd already surrendered and who was a founding member of the original Ku Klux Klan. The school got its name in 1959, when white civic leaders wanted to protest a court decision that called for integrating public schools.

I don't want my daughter, or any student, going to a school named under those circumstances. This is a bad look for Florida -- with so much racial division in our state, renaming Forrest High would be a step toward healing.

Five years ago, the school board voted 5 - 2 to keep the name. But a lot has changed in five years. All five members who voted for Nathan Bedford Forrest have been replaced. There's a new school superintendent who publicly stated that he would support a push from our community to change the name. Now is the time to right a historical wrong. African American Jacksonville students shouldn't have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year.

In the end, I want my child to be able to go anywhere in Jacksonville and be proud of where she is. That can't happen with Nathan Bedford Forrest High School. Please support changing the name today.


https://www.change.org/petitions/du...utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

Yeaaaahhh, they aughtta change that.

Heh. The two oldest and largest High Schools in Montgomery are Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

Florida...damn.

Maud, Maud, Maud, Maud.
Maud Dib hiiigh schooool!!!

The name of that school is haaauuuntehhhhhhd! WOOOOOOOOOO!



That name is gonna gitcha!

Haunted, spooky naaaaaaame!

No KKK connection with them.

Alas, yes, the school should probably be renamed.

However, in doing some quick research on Forrest, I found that he moved away from the KKK's position later in his life, and made an effort--by all appearances heartfelt and genuine--to reconcile blacks and whites. Here's a speech he made to a black group in 1877:

Yeah, and Son of Sam found God.

If you're going to evaluate someone fairly, you need to consider that the worst position they had wasn't necessarily their final position.

I for one have always believed that there is redemption for anyone who truly seeks it. Anyone who has done evil and wants to repent should be allowed to do so. That's not a religious sentiment, just an honest one.

Hell, I'd even give Hitler, Stalin and Mao a second chance each if they worked on it (oh, and if they were still alive).

Huh, what?

Maybe.......after a very long prison stay.

Nothing you say or do erases what you've already said and done. As far as I'm concerned, your every fucking breath goes on a permanent record. None of it ever goes away. You do not become a different person, and you don't get to disown who you "were." Every shitty thing you've done since you were born, every insignificant betrayal, every white lie and "nobody is looking " goes in a big, heavy sack of guilty fucking bricks that you must carry nonstop until the day you fucking die, and you will fucking LIKE it.

I don't.
I've always believed one mistake can destroy your life for all time.
I've always admired the Japanese customs of ritual suicide.
I've always found this culture weak, and disgusting, and pathetic for letting everyone not only get away with everything, but feel good about themselves for doing it.
Yes, that's the part that infuriates the most.
People that deserve death feeling good.
That keeps me up nights.

Paladin and Black Dove can vote for this guy.

We'll keep that in mind the next time you fuck up.

Yeah, the next time he commits mass murder, we'll be sure to check him on that.

I'll believe that when you come out against criminal background checks.

Know what keeps me up at night?
Pictures of Bettie Page.
Come to think of it, they keep me up most of the day, too.

I don't need you to keep shit in mind. I'm an adult, and I can burden my conscience just fine on my own.

HA! I drive down the Jefferson Davis Highway (across the river in South Carolina) every couple of weeks.

Redemption, changing your views over time - reminds me of Malcolm X.
He started out very hate whitey radical but after making a pilgrimage to Mecca and seeing all sorts of races worshipping it altered his views and made him more effective - until the ultra-radicals took him out.

No, I'm not getting this from the movie X, a Muslim on my crew had a paperback book about him laying around when we were in Iraq.

It was most likely The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Hailey of which the movie was based.

But what you speak of was in the movie.

It could have been! It was about ten years ago or so, so I can't be sure.

So who doesn't mind if their kids attend KKK High School?

It would seem to me that curriculum should be more important than the name.

But this is a nice distraction, and it will make fools like Mewa feel like something has been done!

So with an outstanding curriculum, you would send your kid to Al Sharpton High School?

What's in a name, eh?!