A Virginia district has decided to remove a prominent segregationist’s name from a school, saying students should not be educated in a building named after a man who sought to shutter schools rather than integrate them.
The Henrico County school board will strip Harry F. Byrd’s name from the suburban Richmond school following a petition drive and overwhelming public condemnation of the school’s name.
Byrd was a governor, U.S. senator, and a powerful political force in 20th-century Virginia. He also is credited as the architect of the state’s official policy to keep public schools separated by race after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racially segregated schools.
