Judge rules Virginia school board discriminated against Black students by restoring Confederate names

A federal judge has ordered a Virginia school board to strip two Confederate names off its schools, ruling that the board’s 2024 decision to restore them discriminated against Black students. The ruling is the latest turn in a fight that started when the Virginia NAACP sued after the board reversed changes it had made during the 2020 racial justice protests.

In an opinion filed in U.S. District Court, Judge Michael F. Urbanski found that the Shenandoah County School Board violated Black students’ rights under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act. He ordered the board to pick new names on a racially nondiscriminatory basis and to do it, in his words, with all deliberate speed.

Urbanski described the names, which honor Confederate officers, as leftover markers of the county’s segregationist past. He drew a sharp line between letting an old name sit and actively bringing one back. Reinstating these symbols, he wrote, was far more troubling than simply failing to remove a longstanding name.

The case centers on two schools. In May 2024, the board voted 5 to 1 to restore the names Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School. Those names had been changed in 2020 to Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary. Stonewall Jackson was a Confederate general. Ashby-Lee combines the names of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and cavalry officer Turner Ashby.

The Virginia NAACP filed suit the month after the vote, representing six students and their parents. The organization argued that the names forced Black students to learn under symbols tied to the Confederacy and white supremacy, creating a racially hostile environment. Black students make up less than 3 percent of the school system.

Board members who backed restoring the names said they were answering community sentiment and correcting what they saw as a rushed 2020 process.

The Virginia NAACP called the decision a decisive victory for students. State conference president Rev. Cozy Bailey said honoring Confederate leaders in Virginia schools is rooted in a long history of racial discrimination. The board must now choose new names once again.