Academy Award winning actress, Julianne Moore made a determined attempt to change the name of J.E.B.Stuart High School in Falls Church, Virginia. J.E.B. stands for James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, who served as a general in the Confederate Army.
Julianne Moore attended the J.E.B. Stuart High School in 1975 until 1977, along with Bruce Cohen, a film, television, and theater producer. Together they made a formal written request of renaming the school, after hearing about the shooting incident in South Carolina involving racism.
"The killings of nine African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina by a white supremacist who proudly flew and wore the Confederate battle flag was a tragic reminder of these symbols of hate that continue to fuel racism and violence," they said. "And it's sparked a national conversation about the appropriateness of honoring the Confederacy, especially in institutions of learning."
Their petition have already garnered about 28,723 supporters.
Moore and Bruce Cohen wrote, "When our school was founded in 1959, it was named after Stuart, a Confederate General, to protest the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling, that ended the segregation of public schools," they also wrote, "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."
Julianne Moore stated, "We name our buildings, monuments, and parks after exalted and heroic individuals as a way to honor them, and inspire ourselves to do better and reach for more in our own lives," Moore also said, "It is reprehensible to me that in this day and age a school should carry and celebrate the name of a person who fought for the enslavement of other human beings. I think the students of this school deserve better than that moniker."
Their proposal is for the school to be renamed after Thurgood Marshall, the late civil rights leader who became the first African-American justice to the Supreme Court.
