SCLC Wins Historic Victory In School Name Change from KKK Leader

Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader and the first “grand wizard” of the Klu Klux Klan. (Courtesy Photo)

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Seattle Medium Newspaper

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) has assisted in scoring a major victory against the relics of racism in Jacksonville, Florida as the Duval County School Board last week voted 7 – 0 to change the name of Nathan B. Forrest High School.

The School was named after Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, in 1959 when the United Daughters of the Confederacy successfully lobbied the city of Jacksonville to rename the school in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision which outlawed segregation in schools and public accommodations.

According to community activists in Jacksonville, there have been numerous attempts to change the name of the school over the last fifty year, but those attempts were unsuccessful. This time around organizers argued that the name of the school was “an embarrassment to the city.”

“Because of the many failed attempts there weren’t very many people who were confident that it would happen,” said Opio Sokoni – the local SCLC President in Jacksonville. “We got it done because the city saw that the activists were unified and took high quality actions to educate the public about who this man was.”

“It was very hard for those wanting to keep the name to overcome Forrest’s record of atrocities,” added Sokoni.

According to Sokoni, Nathan B. Forrest amassed his fortunes in the late eighteen hundreds buying, selling and enslaving human beings in Tennessee. He also employed slave catchers that would capture enslaved human beings who were seeking freedom. During the U.S. Civil War, he is best known for being responsible for the worst massacre during that conflict. He was reported as giving the orders to kill over three hundred surrendering, Black Union soldiers, women and children at Fort Pillow. Soldiers who wrote about the affair said that the river ran red for over 200 yards from the blood of the slaughtered.

Last month, the Duval County School Board voted to go through the process to see whether the name would be changed. That process included surveys given to the students, alumni and the surrounding community. There were also several forums where the community could voice their opinion on the issue. Both sides were in attendance and made impassioned arguments for their sides.

The SCLC led an action that pulled together a coalition of organizations which included the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, Change.org, the New Jim Crow Movement, the NAACP and the Florida New Majority- as well as a few individuals. One of those individuals was Omotayo Richmond who placed a petition on Change.org which gained close to two hundred thousand signatures from around the country.

Sokoni claims that organizers were able to utilize technology and an old Civil Rights strategy to help tip the scales in their favor.

“Just like the 1960s Birmingham movement, we took children out of school, went to the major streets near the school, and while buses of students passed by we held up signs advertising our position,” said Sokoni. “We caught the morning and evening traffic which also included parents going to work. We then wrote letters to board members and used social media to create the buzz among the students and throughout the city.”

The tally from the surveys showed that two thirds of the students voted in support of the name change. The next step is for the school to vote on a new name and mascot – The school currently goes by the Rebels and incorporates the Confederate flag as part of its mascot.

“This was for the children, said Sokoni. “Now they can lift their heads up high and show their diplomas with pride.”