A Virginia school board has approved a motion for two schools to revert to their Confederate names following a debate that bitterly divided a town.
The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 to reinstate the names of Stonewall Jackson High and Ashby-Lee Elementary in Quicksburg.
Community members had been pushing for a reversal, arguing the 2020 name change was unpopular.
The vote marked the first such U-turn anywhere in the US.
A large crowd flocked to the school board’s public meeting on Thursday to listen to a series of arguments from residents on both sides of the issue.
Following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd and a summer of racial justice unrest, Virginia and other states took down Confederate statues from public spaces.
