For decades, the primarily Black student bodies at Jefferson Davis High School, Robert E. Lee High School, and Sidney Lanier High School have been forced to silently endure the symbolic violence of being educated in buildings whose names glorify white supremacist, Confederate leaders who fought to maintain the enslavement of Black people. This reflects not only a past unwillingness to accept equality of Black people as citizens of this country, but also a conscious effort to defy desegregation mandates following Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and a current unwillingness to acknowledge and reject the subjugation, racial terrorism, and discrimination that Black residents of Montgomery have faced in the past, and continue to endure. Although the Montgomery County Board of Education voted on July 14, 2020, to rename the three Confederate-named schools in MPS, eight months have passed without concrete action to advance this commitment and without transparency regarding the next steps. These names didn't reflect the values of each school's community when they were named, and they certainly don't reflect the values of the current communities. We can no longer allow these names to be prominent in Montgomery and in our neighborhoods. Finding new names for our schools that properly represent our community should be a collaborative effort involving students, alumni, parents, and community members.

Community members, parents, alumni, and students of Lee High School, Jefferson Davis High School, and Lanier High School, please sign this petition and contact the Board members to request that they publicly address this matter by explaining what steps have been taken to move this process and a detailed plan and timeline for having the names changed by the 2021-2022 school year.