Elementary school named after Jefferson Davis to be renamed after Obama

[Travis B]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/20/us/mis...rnd/index.html

An elementary school in Mississippi is switching out the president of the Confederacy for the first black president.

Davis Elementary School in Jackson will be renamed Barack Obama Elementary School for the next school year.

The school was named for Jefferson Davis decades ago, says CNN affiliate WAPT. But parents at the school, which is 98% African-American, proposed renaming the school to honor America's 44th president.

The switch was made possible after the board of the mostly-black Jackson Public School District decided last month it would allow the community and school PTAs the option to rename schools that were named for Confederate leaders.

Ideas for a new name for the school were submitted to the PTA by students, staff and community members. The school also held an assembly earlier this month where students from each class gave presentations on their top name choices. The school community then voted for the top three choices at the school on October 5, with Barack Obama overwhelmingly winning the vote.

"The school community wanted to rename the campus to reflect a person who fully represents ideals and public stances consistent with what we want our children to believe about themselves," Davis Elementary School PTA President Janelle Jefferson told the school board earlier this week.
Jefferson said she was very happy to see the school's students take such an active role in the process.

"It was a very positive experience," she told CNN. "And it was wonderful to see the children grasping this idea that they can be change agents."

Preliminary plans are under way to have a ceremony next year to commemorate the name change, and Jefferson said President Obama will "absolutely" be invited.

The school has been ranked as Mississippi's top elementary school, according to the school district, and two years ago it achieved the highest reading proficiency in the state.

In addition to renaming Davis Elementary, schools named for Robert E. Lee and James Zachariah George may also have their names changed.

The school's name change comes amid the nationwide debate over whether to remove Confederate statues and symbols. New Orleans, Baltimore, New York City and Madison, Wisconsin, are just a few of the cities that have either removed or voted to remove Confederate statues. Other cities are considering such a move.

A nationwide debate surrounding this issue has been underway since Dylann Roof killed nine African-Americans in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015 in an effort to "start a race war." And it flared up again after white nationalists marched during the summer to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counterprotester was killed amid violent clashes between demonstrators.

This is good to see. It's pretty sad that most of these kids had to go to a school named after a guy who fought to keep their ancestors enslaved.

And for those who are worried that this decision will cause people to suddenly forget who Jefferson Davis was, fear not. There are these things called history books that do a great job of covering just what a despicable person and incompetent leader Davis was.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

In b4 "erasing our history"

[Felaris Stormrage]

Why would you name the school after someone who is still living?

That's bad business.

[Niroshi]

This should be good.

[Nasuuna]

Why would you name the school after someone who is still living?

That's bad business.

i was actually thinking that

any other number of famous black people woulda been better :3

[Daedius]

Why would you name the school after someone who is still living?

That's bad business.

Premonition!

[Wyrt]

Good for them. I await the nazi rally protesting a predominately black school changing its name to not be named after a guy that lead the fight to keep slavery.

[Flatspriest]

Why would you name the school after someone who is still living?

That's bad business.

They are being hopeful.

[Felaris Stormrage]

Premonition!

Yea right.

People make mistakes, though. Especially living people.

They are being hopeful.

You mean illogical. There are plenty of African-American people of power to name the school after, that are dead.

[rogueMatthias]

They are being hopeful.

So were the Nobel Committee when they gave Obama a "Peace" Prize and we all know how well that turned out.

[Doctor Amadeus]

I’ll be surprised it’s not burned to the ground in Mississippi.

[BuckSparkles]

i was actually thinking that

any other number of famous black people woulda been better :3

^ Instead of somebody divisive like Obama, they could have gone with King.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Yea right.

People make mistakes, though. Especially living people.

They sure do...like naming a school after the Confederate President.

Luckily living people can also correct mistakes...by renaming the school.

[Trassk]

Good for them. I await the nazi rally protesting a predominately black school changing its name to not be named after a guy that lead the fight to keep slavery.

So, are confederate followers and Nazis just all the same people now?

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

So, are confederate followers and Nazis just all the same people now?

Well, they do like to go to the same parties together.

[Wyrt]

So, are confederate followers and Nazis just all the same people now?

Same thing, different flag.

[Mistame]

This is good to see. It's pretty sad that most of these kids had to go to a school named after a guy who fought to keep their ancestors enslaved.

And in a twist of irony, had that not happened, none of them would exist.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

We're about to hear all about how the Civil War wasn't actually about slavery at all.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

And in a twist of irony, had that not happened, none of them would exist.

"Slavery was the best thing to happen to blacks...because of that they were brought to America...Land of the Free!"

[Mistame]

"Slavery was the best thing to happen to blacks...because of that they were brought to America...Land of the Free!"

Not what I said, at all. But I won't hold it against you that words aren't your strong suit.