Confederate names, icons raise questions at some Texas schools
BY DIANE SMITH
... “I think the murders in Charleston have spurred a wave of de-Confederate feeling. I think we are going to de-Confederatize our landscape in most of the United States,” said James W. Loewen, a historian who taught about racism at the University of Vermont and wrote The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The ‘Great Truth’ about the ‘Lost Cause.’ “We will not forget history. We will remember the Confederates, but we will not honor them, and it’s about time” ...
In Texas, at least 20 schools are named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and at least several high schools use the Rebel mascot.
At Richland High School in North Richland Hills, students and alumni are sticking by the Rebel name, though it is now the subject of a civil rights complaint. The school quit using the Confederate flag as a symbol of school spirit at sporting events in 1993 ...
Rev. Kyev Tatum, president of the Fort Worth Chapter of the Southern Leadership Conference, said it is time to take down all Confederate-era icons and names because they represent slavery and discrimination to many people. He filed the civil rights complaint alleging discrimination in the district and also targets the use of the Rebel mascot name ...
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article27529096.html