“An Upstanding Citizen of Our City”: Analysis of Websites of Public Schools Named After Confederates

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Wednesday 7:45am
  In Poster Session: Using Education, Place, Space, and Time in the Pursuit of Educational Justice and Renewal

Abstract

Through school names, we write and transmit history and values to our youngest generations. Yet hundreds of public schools still bear the names of Confederates. We contribute to the emerging field of critical toponymy, examining how schools reckon with their Confederate eponyms via a content analysis of the websites of 371 schools with Confederate namesakes. Rather than “educate people about… the full good and bad of the American experience” (Chan, 2021), we find that schools generally omit any reference to their Confederate eponyms. Others minimize their role in the Confederacy. A small but meaningful share of schools openly celebrate their Confederate eponyms. We conclude with implications of these symbols for our current moment of historical denialism.

Authors

• Cheyenne Phillips, Southern Methodist University

• Meredith Paige Richards, Southern Methodist University