The Amarillo Independent School District has taken up the question of whether to rename Robert E. Lee elementary, on the city’s north side.
As The Amarillo Globe-News reports, the AISD Board of Trustees will meet with attorneys today to consider whether it might be time for a change.
Robert E. Lee Elementary, which is named for a Confederate General and slave owner, is especially upsetting to some due to its location in a historically black neighborhood.
Confederate monuments and remembrances have become increasingly controversial ever since a group of white supremacists and neo-Nazis rallied around a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia last month. A woman was killed during that event.
AISD Board President Jim Austin said the discussion about the Amarillo school’s name was prompted by a Sept. 1 meeting with the president and vice president of the Amarillo branch of the NAACP.