A Virginia school is dropping its Confederacy general name to honor the United States’ first black president.
J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School, in Richmond, will now be named Barack Obama Elementary School, following a 6-1 vote by the Richmond School Board on Monday night.
The school, named after the pro-slavery general, was the only Confederate-named school in the former capital of the Confederacy.
J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School, in Richmond, will now be named Barack Obama Elementary School (pictured is Obama in Paris in December 2017)
The name change was suggested in the wake of the deadly Charlottesville riots last summer, when white supremacist groups – protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee – clashed with counter-protesters.
A white supremacist was later charged with murder after he drove his car into a crowd of people.
The elementary school, which has 90 per cent black students, has welcomed the change, as has the local community.
Kenya Gibson represents the school on the board and was the lone dissenting vote, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
The school (pictured) named after the pro-slavery general, was the only Confederate-named school in the former capital of the Confederacy
Gibson wanted the vote to be delayed and said there was a lack of local names included in the administrations rebranding recommendations.
Students, parents, staff, and the local community were all asked to submit name ideas, and on Monday, the Richmond City School Board revealed the top three choices.
Northside, Barack Obama and Wishtree took the majority of votes from the students, knocking aside suggestions like John Adams Elementary and Jackie Robinson Elementary.
The board estimates it will cost about $26,000 to rename the school.
Obama, the 44th president and first African American in the role, has had countless schools named after him during and after his two terms.
But this appears to be the first time a school has been renamed from a Confederate general to Obama.
The City of Petersburg also voted to rename three Confederate-named schools earlier this year, according to CBS.
WHO WAS J.E.B. STUART?
The school was originally named after J.E.B. Stuart (pictured) a pro-slavery Confederate general
Stuart, son of a slave owning politician, was born on a plantation in Patrick County, Virginia, near the border with North Carolina in 1833.
He was pro-slavery and fought in the Bleeding Kansas conflicts – a series of violent confrontations between pro and anti-slavery groups who clashed over whether Kansas should be a free state. During the conflict, he participated in the capture of noted abolitionist John Brown. Stuart was also a veteran of multiple frontier battles with Native Americans.
When his home state Virginia seceded, he joined the Confederate Army under Stonewall Jackson, and then under Robert E. Lee, participating in Peninsula Campaign, Maryland Campaign, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He died at the Battle of Yellow Tavern aged 31 in 1864.