Jacksonville: A former KKK leader's name doesn't belong on a high school

EDITORIAL
www.orlandosentinel.com
October 30, 2008

There's a skirmish under way in Jacksonville. The Duval County School Board will meet next month to decide whether Nathan Bedford Forrest High School should get a new name.

Mr. Forrest wasn't just any Confederate general. He was a cavalry officer and a brilliant tactician who, after the war, became grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Though historians disagree on Mr. Forrest's true involvement in the organization, his association is especially sensitive at a school whose student population is more than 50 percent African-American.

Other schools, including some in Central Florida, are named after such Confederate figures as Robert E. Lee. But their names and legacies aren't tainted by membership in one of the most despicable groups ever formed in the United States.

Forrest High needs a new name.