The Battle for America's Soul: Confederate Names and the Ongoing Struggle for Racial Justice

The Courtroom Confrontation

In the solemn chambers of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, a profound constitutional and moral drama unfolded this month that speaks volumes about America’s ongoing struggle with its painful history. The case, Virginia State Conference N.A.A.C.P. et al. v. County School Board of Shenandoah County, centers on whether the reinstatement of Confederate names to two public schools—Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary—constitutes racial discrimination against Black students. This legal battle represents far more than a local dispute; it embodies the national tension between confronting historical truth and perpetuating harmful symbols of oppression.

The proceedings revealed starkly contrasting narratives. Plaintiffs’ attorney Kaitlin Banner argued that naming schools after Confederate generals who fought to preserve slavery “make[s] it very clear that Black students were not welcome.” Conversely, defense attorney Jim Guynn contended there was no racist intent, suggesting Confederate figures should be celebrated for traits unrelated to their defense of slavery. The trial became a microcosm of America’s larger cultural wars, with retired Army Brigadier General James Tyrus Seidule providing devastating testimony about the Confederacy’s explicit commitment to white supremacy, citing Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens’ 1861 declaration that the new government’s cornerstone rested “upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man.”

Historical Context and Political Backdrop

This legal confrontation occurs against the backdrop of dramatic shifts in America’s approach to historical memory. The 2020 racial justice protests following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd prompted the original removal of Confederate names from these schools. In a powerful moment of moral clarity, the school board had proclaimed: “We urgently must act to stop the racial injustice that harms and anguishes Black people, who are our family, friends, neighbors, students, staff members and fellow Americans.” Stonewall Jackson became Mountain View High School; Ashby-Lee Elementary became Honey Run.

However, the backlash was immediate and sustained. Students waved Confederate flags, and by 2024, with new school board members including Gloria Carlineo—who had previously called Black Lives Matter “intrinsically racist”—the Confederate names were reinstated. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made rewriting historical narrative a second-term priority, reinstalling Confederate statues and reverting military base names to their Confederate titles. This national context makes the Shenandoah case particularly significant as a test of whether courts will uphold educational environments free from symbols of racial oppression.

The Moral and Constitutional Imperative

As a firm believer in America’s democratic principles and the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, I view this case as fundamentally about whether public institutions can actively promote symbols that inherently denigrate and psychologically harm minority students. The testimony of Black student A.D. Carter, who described feeling an “invisible ball and chain” after the names were restored, should shock the conscience of every American who believes in educational equality. Public schools should be environments where all children feel valued and respected, not reminded daily that their community honors men who fought to keep their ancestors enslaved.

The defense’s argument that Confederate figures should be celebrated for non-racial qualities represents a profound failure of moral reasoning. One cannot separate Robert E. Lee’s military tactics from the cause for which he employed them—the preservation of chattel slavery and the destruction of the United States. As Professor Seidule powerfully testified, these men committed treason against their nation to defend a system that treated human beings as property. The suggestion that Jackson teaching enslaved people to read the Bible—for purposes of teaching submission to their “master”—somehow mitigates his defense of slavery demonstrates breathtaking moral confusion.

The Dangerous Erosion of Historical Truth

What makes this case particularly alarming is how it reflects broader efforts to whitewash American history and undermine racial progress. The defense attorney’s question—“How would a man from Georgia, born in 1820, even know slavery was wrong?”—ignores the abundant historical record of white Americans who recognized slavery’s immorality despite being products of their time. From Quaker abolitionists to Frederick Douglass’s white allies, moral courage existed alongside compliance with evil. This rewriting of history to grant “grace” to enslavers while dismissing the experiences of the enslaved represents a dangerous distortion of our national narrative.

Gloria Carlineo’s testimony, suggesting that concerns about diversity and inclusion represent “indoctrination” while supporting the honoring of Confederate leaders, illustrates this disturbing inversion of values. The true indoctrination occurs when we ask Black children to attend schools named for men who would have kept them in chains. The true threat to “Christian values” isn’t diversity but rather the defense of systems that denied the fundamental humanity of God’s children.

The Path Forward: Truth and Reconciliation

Judge Michael Urbanski’s eventual ruling, which may take months and will likely be appealed, will have significance far beyond Shenandoah County. However, regardless of the legal outcome, Americans must confront the deeper question: What values do we want to embody as a nation? The simultaneous replacement of Robert E. Lee’s statue in the U.S. Capitol with one honoring Barbara Rose Johns—a Black teenager who fought school segregation—provides a powerful alternative vision. As Governor Glenn Youngkin noted, we cannot tell Virginia’s story without telling Johns’ story, just as we cannot honestly tell America’s story without acknowledging both the horror of slavery and the courage of those who resisted it.

If we truly believe in liberty and justice for all, we must create educational environments that affirm the dignity of every student. This doesn’t mean erasing history but rather contextualizing it honestly and refusing to celebrate those who fought against American ideals. The Confederacy represented a rebellion against the United States and a defense of human bondage—facts that should disqualify its leaders from being honored in public institutions, especially schools.

The battle in that Virginia courtroom is ultimately about whether America will continue its painful but necessary journey toward becoming a more perfect union, or whether we will retreat into comforting myths that perpetuate racial harm. As citizens committed to democracy and human dignity, we must choose truth over tradition, justice over nostalgia, and the living experience of Black children over the dead ideology of the Confederacy.