Covington Joins NAACP Push to Scrap Confederate Names From Virginia Schools
In Hanover County, the NAACP is suing to change the names of Lee-Davis High School and Stonewall Jackson Middle School.
August 16, 2019 at 02:42 PM
2 minute read
Covington & Burling is representing NAACP as it sues over school names. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)
Covington & Burling is representing the Hanover County Unit of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in a lawsuit aimed at changing local schools’ names.
Hanover County is home to the Lee-Davis High School “Confederates” and the Stonewall Jackson Middle School “Rebels.” The schools are located just outside Richmond, Virginia, which was the capital city of the Confederates during the Civil War.
The Hanover School Board voted in 2018 to keep the schools’ names.
On Friday, Covington said it is partnering with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs to represent the Hanover County Unit of the NAACP in a suit against the county and the school board. Robert Barnette, president of the Hanover NAACP, said the school board’s decision to not change the names “signals that African American students and families are not valued as members of our school communities.”
“Hanover County is spending taxpayer funds on litigation to preserve its ability to force African-American students to literally label themselves ‘Rebels’ and ‘Confederates’ in order to participate in school activities and sports. Let that sink in,” Covington partner Jason Raofield said in a statement. “This is not a case about ‘heritage,’ it is a case about protecting children.”
The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Such litigation involving school names is not novel in Virginia. Last year, high school students sued the Arlington School Board over its vote to remove “Lee” from Washington-Lee High School located in the D.C. suburb. Arlington County Circuit Court Chief Judge William Newman subsequently ruled that the students did not have standing to challenge the board’s vote, and that the board committed no errors substantial enough to require legal action.
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