Friday, December 20, 2013

Re: [gatortalk] From the Southern Poverty Law Center News

Having lost slaves in both wars, First Seminole and Not-So-Civil, and being #27 out of 548 1960 graduates of THE ANDREW, NOT-SO-STONEWALL BUT DEFINITELY PUGNACIOUS, JACKSON SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL across the street from Bailey's Drive-in with roller skating car hops and 99-cent/dozen fried shrimp dinners, I didn't have to look it up or ask Randy.
 
Stephen should always look it up.
 
We didn't win either war, by God.  The only flag that really mattered for my family in both wars was totally white and waving feverishly.  Total casualties for both wars: 6 slaves, nameless, one officer, Capt. John Polhill at Gettysburg (which is why my cell-phone notification is: 'Capt...incoming message'), and one enlisted sergeant, William, father of a then-unborn son, in the Florida Fifth Cavalry.  We do have a few family wins to report, but why try to rub it in.
 
Comments will probably not be appreciated.  We are still very sensitive about all of this and are still looking for anyone who is against compromise and for wars.  Do not expect support or nurturing.
 
Where the heck is 'too hot?'
 
A. Leon Polhill, Gator
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know." - Mark Twain
From: Randy Platt <PCGator@Tampabay.rr.com>
To: gatortalk@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 8:52 PM
Subject: RE: [gatortalk] From the Southern Poverty Law Center News

I didn't think Andrew "Stonewall" Jackson looked right? J
 
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. And yes, I had to look it up. J
 
 
Randy Platt
aka "PCGator"
aka "The Armchair Quarterback"
aka "The Other Randy"
 
Later Gators! Afterwhile the Rest!
 
 
 
From: gatortalk@googlegroups.com [mailto:gatortalk@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jerry D. Belloit
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 8:09 PM
To: gatortalk@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [gatortalk] From the Southern Poverty Law Center News
 
I hope you don't mean Robert E Lee.  
 
I was really surprised to learn about General Forrest's background.  I took Driver's Ed there when I was 14.  I don't remember anyone ever mentioning anything other than he was a Confederate general.
Jerry
 
P.S.  I was trying to figure out who you meant and I ran across this:
 
It's back to school time in Jacksonville, so sharpen your number 2 pencil, let's learn who these schools are named after. I'll continue these this week:
Douglas Anderson, a highly respected African-American businessman. In 1948, led an effort to build the school where it still stands on the southside. Anderson is possibly best known for his successful to provide free transportation to African-American pupils in the county. 
William M. Raines High; Named in honor of William M. Raines, principal of Matthew Gilbert Middle School.
A. Philip Randolph Academies; A. P. Randolph was an African-American labor movement and civil rights leader. Randolph played an important role in organizing the 1963 March on Washington at which Martin Luther King, Jr. made his "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Andrew Robinson Elementary-Andrew Robinson was the first principal of Raines High School from 1965 - 1969.
Stanton- named after Edwin Stanton, President Lincoln's Secretary of War. He was an advocate of free formal education for Negro boys and girls. Stanton was the first school for black children in the State of Florida.
Fletcher – named after Jacksonville resident Duncan U. Fletcher, who was the longest serving U.S. senator in Florida history.
Robert E. Lee – after the noted Civil War general
Andrew Jackson – named after the 7th US President, the same man for which the city is named.
Samuel Wolfson, - prominent businessman and civic leader who died in 1963.
Terry Parker - named after local businessman who with his family deeded thirty acres to build a school in Arlington. 
Paxon – The Paxon family were the owners of the land in the area where Paxon School for Advanced Studies stands. It was originally given to the government to use for landing planes, and after WWII was given to the city for a school.
Ribault – 16th century French explorer who "found" the first coast at Fort Caroline, and died at the hands of the Spanish in St. Augustine.
Ed White – Edward Higgins White, an astronaut, was the first American to walk in space. He was tragically killed while training for the first Apollo mission in 1967. At least seven schools around the country that were built in the late 1960s were named after White.
Allen B. Nease - conservationist in the mid-19th century, known as "Johnny Pine-nut" for the number of pines he planted in St. Johns County and throughout north Florida.
Nathan B. Forrest - Perhaps the most controversial name of a Jacksonville school in recent years, Forrest was a Civil War Lt. General and later opposed reconstruction by leading the newly formed Ku Klux Klan.
 
From: Stephen Manuel <srmanuel@bellsouth.net>
Reply-To: GatorTalk <Gatortalk@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at 7:41 PM
To: GatorTalk <Gatortalk@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [gatortalk] From the Southern Poverty Law Center News
 
I don't mean to be political but they're 3 other schools in Jacksonville that will probably change their names in the near future.
 
The 3 are:
 
Robert E. Lee High School
J.E.B Stuart Middle School
Andrew "Stonewall" Jackson High School
 
All are named, as you probably know, after Confederate Military Figures.
 
Stephen Manuel
 
From: gatortalk@googlegroups.com [mailto:gatortalk@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Oliver Barry
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 6:05 PM
To: gatortalk@googlegroups.com
Subject: [gatortalk] From the Southern Poverty Law Center News
 
By Mark Potok on December 18, 2013 - 10:04 am
Forty-three years after it was integrated by court order, Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Fla., will drop the name of the Confederate general who ran an infamous antebellum slaveyard, presided over the massacre of surrendering black Yankee troops, and was the first national leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
It was a long time coming.
Initial efforts to change the name of the school, whose student body is now 61% black, were made in the early 1990s but failed. A second attempt, led by local sociology professor Lance Stoll and a few of his students, also failed in 2007, even though Stoll surveyed the local community and jumped through a series of hoops imposed by the school board. The board defied its own policies then, with members voting 5-2 along racial lines to keep the name of the infamous Confederate.
But this Monday, culminating the largest campaign yet, the board, all of whose members but one are new since 2007, voted unanimously to select a new name before August 2014. Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who supported the change from the beginning, said it could end a "cloud of divisiveness" and would now "allow us to focus on what matters most — student achievement."
"We recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history," Duval County School Board member Constance Hall said. "For too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect and equality — all that we expect in Duval schools. Our board has [been] and is guided by a set of core values that promote equal opportunity, honors differences, and values diversity."
Stoll said he was glad for the change but still amazed at the stiff defense of the name put up by many locals. "Their argument was so shallow and so ridiculous," he told Hatewatch. "You can't defend Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was a miserable, despicable human being. And the Confederacy was a horrible place. Why do we allow our schools to be named after treasonous people? It's just amazing."
It wasn't easy. In addition to Stoll, a key player this time was Otomayo Richmond, who started a national petition on the Change.org website that eventually garnered some 160,000 signatures. The local NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the local Democratic Party, several unions and others worked hard to press the campaign forward, Stoll said. "In 2007, it was me and two or three students," he said. "This time, we had a broad coalition and the social media. I think the people running Jacksonville today don't want to be a redneck town any more."
In recent surveys, 94% of the school's alumni opposed changing the name. But 64% of students supported the change, as did Vitti and, ultimately, all members of the multiracial board. By a small margin, the local community also backed a change.
Still, it was an uphill battle that may have turned on a single moment about six weeks ago. "Every board member received a letter from the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan of Missouri," Stoll said. "Even the most conservative people on the school board said they were horrified. That was the best thing that happened."
8 Comments
 
 
Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI
Bob Parks Realty, LLC
REO Department
1517 Hunt Club Blvd
Gallatin TN 37066
Phone: 615-826-4040
Mobile: 615-972-4239
barryo@realtracs.com
 
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