Federal judge orders Virginia county to replace Confederate school names it restored in 2024
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has sided with the Virginia NAACP in its lawsuit against a county school board’s reinstatement of Confederate military names to two schools, saying the decision discriminated against Black students and ordering…
A federal judge has ruled in favor of the Virginia NAACP in a lawsuit against Shenandoah County's school board for reinstating Confederate military names to two schools in 2024. Judge Michael F. Urbanski found that the decision violated Black students' rights under the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act.
The judge stated that the Confederate names were "vestiges" of the county's segregationist history and that reinstating them with full knowledge of their discriminatory impact was problematic. The court ordered the school board to select new school names based on racial nondiscrimination "on all deliberate speed."
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