Actress Julianne Moore and producer Bruce Cohen want to rename their old high school in Fairfax County, Virginia that is named after Confederate general J.E.B. Staurt.
The former classmates created a Change.org petition that asked for the Fairfax County School Board to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School to Thurgood Marshall High School, according to the Associated Press. Marshall was a civil rights leader and the first black Supreme Court Justice.
Moore and Cohen attended J.E.B. Stuart High School together in the late 1970's. They seek to change the name due to the issue of blantant racisim.
They said in the petition that, "When we were at J.E.B. Stuart in the late '70's, the school symbol was Stuart riding a horse and waving the Confederate flag. The Confederate flag was at the center of our basketball court and on our athletic letter jackets and wasn't removed until 2001--but the symbol of Stuart on a horse waving a flag (now solid blue) remains. No one should have to apologize for the name of the public high school you attended and the history of racism it represents, as we and so many alumni of Stuart have felt the need to do our whole lives."
J.E.B. Stuart High School opened in 1959 during heightened racial tensions after the U.S. Supreme Court decision five years earlier that ordered the desegregation of public schools, according to the Washington Post.
A group of Stuart students and alumni started a campaign in June to change the school's name after the shootings of nine black citizens at a church in South Carolina ignited criticism of things that honor the Confederacy. The school was specifically named after the Confederate general, Stuart, to protest Brown vs. the Board of Education, according to the change.org petition.
"Today, this school is attended by a diverse group of students who should not have to attend a school that bears the name of a man who fought to keep African Americans enslaved," the petition read. "No one should have to apologize for the name of the public high school you attended and the history of racism it represents, as we and so many alumni of Stuart have felt the need to do our whole lives."
The petition already has over 29,000 signatures.
