Forrest High School is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Spearheaded by the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition (JPC), the campaign to rename Forrest High School hopes to deal another blow against racism and the national oppression of African Americans in the South.

“I think the Forrest issue is important to Jacksonville in a few ways,” said Mike Stovall, a lead organizer with the JPC and one of the architects of the rename campaign. “One, it's a homegrown reaction to a history of subtle racism in this town – the hate under the polite exterior, as it were.” Stovall continued, “Part of what we are fighting is ignorance of, and the historical revision of, history.”

The history Stovall refers to is important. Originally named Valhalla High School, the name was changed to Forrest High School in 1959. The Daughters of the Confederacy initiated the name change as a racist stunt to protest the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated all-white schools throughout the country.

The name Nathan Bedford Forrest is a blunt reminder of racist hatred, violence and terror. Forrest was a brutal slave trader, ordered the infamous Fort Pillow Massacre, and led the KKK. At Fort Pillow, Forrest’s troops executed hundreds of captured and surrendering Union soldiers, most of whom were African American, which Forrest bragged about in his military dispatches. The Daughters of the Confederacy chose the name to intimidate courageous African American civil rights activists, many of them teenagers, struggling for freedom.

When Forrest High School opened in 1959, it was an all-white, segregated school. Today, 54% of the school's approximately 1800 students are African-American.

“I don't think we can talk about this fight and not talk about current and future students,” said Stovallm, “and about the entirely different message that the city is sending to those kids.”

Started in late July, the campaign to rename Forrest High School draws greater community support by the day. A petition started by Jacksonville activist Omotayo Richmond on Change.org on Aug. 4 of this year reached over 157,000 at the time of writing. More than 50 Jacksonville residents attended a Duval County School Board forum on Oct. 3 to demand a new name for Forrest High School. JPC organizers have attended local events, like Art Walk in downtown Jacksonville and canvassed neighborhoods around Forrest, collecting surveys about the name, which they intend to present to the school board.

“We're getting out in the community, and it's so clear that people want to rename the school,” said Fernando Figueroa, an organizer with the JPC. “We stood out in front of a neighborhood grocery store and gathered several dozen surveys in an hour, all demanding that Forrest's name be dropped. When people hear that Jacksonville has a high school named after a Klan leader, they're outraged.”

The growing success of the campaign has left racists and reactionaries in Jacksonville panicking. On Oct. 2, the local KKK branch in Jacksonville sent the Duval County School Board a six-page letter hysterically asking the Board to keep the school's racist name. The letter grossly distorted history and openly apologized for Forrest's heinous war crimes and racist violence.

Other racists have come out of the woodwork to speak against the campaign. At the Oct. 3 school board forum, several older white residents from the Jacksonville-based Museum of Southern History spoke in defense of Forrest and slandered civil rights leaders, like A. Philip Randolph. The majority of the audience at the forum greatly outnumbered the small contingent from the Museum of Southern History, who received boos and jeers when they spoke.

The JPC will continue gathering surveys and petitions from Jacksonville residents to present to the school board in November. Duval County Superintendent Nikolai Vitti publicly stated that he would support changing the name “if brought organically to the board by the community,” according to a National Public Radio interview from July 2013. The coalition plans to march on the November school board meeting to demand the name change.

#JacksonvilleFL #StudentMovement #AntiRacism #Racism #CivilRightsMovement #BedfordForrestHighSchool #NathanBedfordForrest

Selma, AL – Over 1000 people gathered here, Sunday, March 4, to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the 1965 civil rights demonstration known as Bloody Sunday – during which over 600 men, women and children crossed over the Edmund Pettus bridge and were attacked with tear gas, clubs and violence from police. The event gained notoriety around the world, making obvious the hypocrisy of the U.S. government and pushing forward the Voting Rights Act that was passed five months later.

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both made appearances at the march and spoke at the rally outside the Brown Chapel AME Church. While the speeches focused mainly on the upcoming elections and the civil rights movement, Senator Obama briefly addressed the issue of the war at a Democratic campaign meeting before the rally, calling it “ill-conceived.” “The billions spent in Iraq could have been re-invested in Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham,” he said. “We can end this war in Iraq.” Obama, who has not come out for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, also spoke of the need for universal health care and improvements in education.

However, not everyone was convinced that all the candidates are sincere in their commitments towards social change, particularly for the African-American community. Others were skeptical that real progress has been achieved since the fateful day in Selma in 1965. Despite civil rights achievements, racism, discrimination and national oppression are still widespread and injustices continue.

James Bevel from Eutaw, Alabama, who wore a noose around his neck, does not believe the issues that people marched for in 1965 have been resolved. “Now they don't lynch colored folk in America, they lynch colored folk in the Middle East,” he said, making a reference to the hanging of Saddam Hussein.

Others pointed out the worsening conditions for African-Americans in the U.S. and doubt whether true progress has been made. “There are more black young men in jail than in college,” said the Reverend Al Sharpton during his speech. “A high number of ex-prisoners are disenfranchised. Those who were not with us in 1965 are not with us today. Those who would not let us vote, undercount our votes today. Those that were hanging us then, are hanging our votes today.”

Larry Howard, who was twelve when he stood on Edmund Pettus and saw police mercilessly beat protesters, agreed. “Spend a few days in Selma, and you’ll quickly learn that what was there in the sixties – in terms of poverty, in terms of unemployment – still exist today.”

Alabama, the birthplace of the civil rights movement, has seen few improvements, especially for those in rural areas. ‘Right-to-work’ laws mean weak unions and low pay, particularly for African-American women, whom make up a significant portion of the autoworkers here.

Howard noted, “The Honda Motor corporation has opened supply companies operating in Alabama that pay $6, $7 dollars an hour instead of $20 or $30 like the rest of the country, in conditions that are practically that of sweat-shop or slavery conditions. People work long hours and can be fired for refusing to work overtime. Never have I seen Black females work harder than they do in this county.” The contrast was made clear as political celebrities, including former President Bill Clinton, posed for news crews in front of dilapidated projects and as protesters thronged the streets, marching through low income neighborhoods.

Also present at the march was a contingent of the New Black Panther Party, who as the crowd marched through Selma and across the bridge, raised their fists and chanted “Black Power!”

“This is a new generation of struggle,” said Malik Z Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, “For the Black community, it is not just Bloody Sunday, but Bloody Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.” Shabazz added, “Yesterday there was Vietnam, today there is a war led by a warmonger named Bush,” before his microphone was grabbed by one of the organizers.

Despite differences, all could agree that the struggle for civil and human rights does not end with the walk across the bridge, but involves renewed commitment towards ending injustice, both in the Black community and around the world.

Young people especially have a vital role in this fight. “Work hard and sacrifice, the way those did in the sixties,” Shabazz responded, when asked what responsibilities student activists today have. “Embody that same spirit and continue the struggle, whether against police brutality at home or U.S. imperialism abroad.”

#SelmaAL #News #AfricanAmerican #CivilRightsMovement #BloodySunday #BrownChapelAMEChurch

For this year’s holiday honoring Dr. King, we are printing 3 commentaries on King’s political thinking that are important for understanding today’s situation – Fight Back! editors.

The birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been a national holiday for the last twenty years. It is a time to remember his life, to reflect on the changes brought about by the Civil Rights movement and to recommit ourselves to his struggle for peace, economic justice and racial equality.

This January, the coming U.S. war with Iraq, the economic recession that has thrown millions out of work and the government persecution of Arabs and Muslims make it all the more important that we remember what Dr. King fought for.

Growing up in California, I can remember the racial segregation. When my parents were looking to buy a house, there were three separate listings of homes for sale: one for whites, one for blacks, and another for ‘others.’ When I went swimming with an African American friend’s family, we drove for miles to a swimming pool in a large black community. And I remember having to walk out of a restaurant after waiting almost half an hour for someone to take our order, while whites who came in after us had already gotten their meals.

Later, when I went to school, I learned about how Dr. King led the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, which began in 1955. In Montgomery, white supremacy meant that blacks had to sit in the back of the bus, and if the seats were full, blacks had to give up their seat to white passengers boarding the bus. For more than a year, the African American community, sparked by Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat, did not ride a bus until the city agreed to desegregate the bus system.

I saw film clips of the brutal treatment of Civil Rights protesters in Birmingham, Alabama. Fire hoses and vicious dogs were turned on the protesters and more than four thousand – mostly children – were arrested. And how could anyone forget the words of Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington? Facing a crowd of more than 250,000 people, Dr. King spoke of his dream of brotherhood. “Let freedom ring!” said Dr. King, ending his speech with the words of the old spiritual, “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”

The struggle of the Civil Rights movement ended racial segregation and won blacks the right to vote, which had been denied them since the 1890’s. But the struggle of Dr. King did not end there. In 1964, police brutality triggered an insurrection by African Americans in Los Angeles. The poverty of the urban black ghetto in Watts and other cities in the North and Midwest led Dr. King to champion the cause of economic justice. In 1968, Dr. King was organizing a Poor People’s Campaign, saying, “We need an economic bill of rights. This would guarantee a job to all people who want to work and are able to work. It would also guarantee an income for all who are not able to work.”

Dr. King was also an early advocate of affirmative action. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by Dr. King and other civil rights leaders in 1957, created Operation Breadbasket to create jobs and business opportunities for the black community. “If a city has a 30% Negro population,” said Dr. King, “then it is logical to assume that Negroes should have at least 30% of the jobs in any particular company, and jobs in all categories rather than only menial jobs, as the case almost always happens to be.”

Last, but not least, Martin Luther King Jr. was an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam. His principled support for nonviolence led him to say, “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.”

#UnitedStates #StPaulMN #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #DrMartinLutherKingJr #MLK #CivilRightsMovement #SouthernChristianLeadershipConference #SCLC