VOA慢速英语2020-- 美国南部推动邦联学校更名

A Push to Change Confederate School Names across US South

Trude Lamb is a top cross country runner at Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler, Texas. But the name on her sports jersey¹, she says, is a sharp reminder² of a man "who didn't believe people like me were 100 percent human."

Over the summer, she wrote a letter to Tyler school board officials. Lamb, who is from Ghana, told them she had seen the horrific conditions of slave dungeons⁴ on the African coast. She said that she could not support a name that celebrates a Confederate general who fought on the side of slavery. Lee commanded southern rebel forces against the U.S. military during the Civil War.

Along with many current and former students at the high school, Lamb pushed to change the school's name this year. The campaign was launched under the hashtag #wewontwearthename.

The school board approved the change in July after years of resistance.

"That name was not a black supporter. He owned slaves," said Lamb. He did anything he could to harm or remove Black people, she added. "I'm like, ‘No, not wearing this name on my jersey,'" she told The Associated Press.

More than 100 public schools in the United States are named for Confederate leaders. Perhaps 90 percent of them are named for General Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis or General Stonewall Jackson. That information comes from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Many of the schools were founded as all-white schools during the days of racial segregation⁵. But now they also serve African American students. At least 12 now have majority Black student bodies.

A new push has come to rename many of the schools as nationwide protests over police abuse and racial injustice⁶ have led to the removal of Confederate statues. Several school systems in Alabama, Texas and Virginia have voted to change school names in recent months, but local resistance and state laws make that no simple act.

Lamb gained national attention for her letter to the Tyler, Texas, school board. She has since become a target of social media attacks with racist⁷ language and even threats of violence, her mother said.

In Montgomery, Alabama, three high schools are named after Lee, Davis and Sidney Lanier, a writer who was a Confederate soldier.

"It's a basic insult to all the African American children who would have to walk past a statue or go to a school that is named after a white supremacist," said Amerika Blair. She was among those pushing for the change. Blair attended Robert E. Lee High in Montgomery and completed her studies there in 2009.

The Montgomery County School Board voted in July to change the names of the three schools. But a 2017 state law protects Confederate statues and other long-standing memorials and names. The school system will have to get special permission from a committee and the soonest it would get a decision is October. If denied, the school system must pay $25,000 for breaking the law by changing the name without permission.

Like many other Confederate-named schools, Lee in Montgomery opened as an all-white school in 1955. That was one year after the U.S. Supreme⁸ Court ruled that segregated⁹ schools were unconstitutional. At that time, the South was actively¹⁰ fighting federal orders to integrate. But after integration¹¹ became law, white people left some neighborhoods. So, a lot of the schools became heavily African American.

A statue of Lee stood outside the school for many years — facing north to keep an eye on his enemies, school legend says. But in June, a group of people pushed the statue down. Four individuals were arrested but the charges were later dropped.

Similar pushes to rename schools are taking place across the country. The Southern Poverty Law Center said about 40 schools have been renamed or closed in the past few years.

In Virginia, the removal of Confederate names began in the state's northern cities and towns in 2018. That is when J.E.B. Stuart High in Falls Church changed to Justice High. Washington-Lee High School in Arlington changed its name to Washington-Liberty at the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

The movement to change school names expanded outside northern Virginia as Black Lives Matter protests took hold after the police killing¹² of George Floyd in May. For example, in Hanover County, a conservative area near Richmond, the school board voted narrowly to change the name of Lee-Davis High.

Changing names is part of the move from one period in history to another, noted¹³ historian Wayne Flynt. He has written many history books on the American South.

Flynt pointed¹⁴ out a connection between school names and inequity. He said the same beliefs that led to the Confederate school names also created education systems that often leave minority children in underfunded and failing schools.

I'm Alice Bryant.

Words in This Story

jersey – n. a loose shirt worn by a member of a sports team as part of a uniform

reminder – n. something that causes you to remember or to think about something

dungeon³ – n. a dark underground prison in a castle

Confederate – n. a soldier, citizen, or supporter of the Confederacy during the American Civil War

hashtag – n. a word or phrase that starts with the symbol # and that briefly¹⁵ indicates what a message is about

segregation – n. the practice or policy of keeping people of different races or religions separate from each other

integration – n. the act of ending a policy that keeps people of different races apart in a place

legend – n. a story from the past that is believed by many people but cannot be proved to be true

underfunded – adj. not having enough money to do what is needed

1 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

2 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

3 dungeon   

n.地牢，土牢

参考例句：

• They were driven into a dark dungeon.他们被人驱赶进入一个黑暗的地牢。
• He was just set free from a dungeon a few days ago.几天前，他刚从土牢里被放出来。

4 dungeons   

n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The captured rebels were consigned to the dungeons. 抓到的叛乱分子被送进了地牢。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He saw a boy in fetters in the dungeons. 他在地牢里看见一个戴着脚镣的男孩。 来自辞典例句

5 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

6 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

7 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

8 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

9 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

10 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

11 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

14 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

15 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。