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Top Stories: Name Change For Four Dallas Schools Honoring Confederate Leaders Up For Vote This Month

Courtesy of Dallas ISD
Robert E. Lee Elementary in East Dallas.

The top local stories this morning from KERA News:

The Dallas school board has been looking at renaming schools now named after Confederate soldiers.

At a board meeting Thursday, district staff identified four elementary schools that should change: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston and William L. Cabell.

District administration also compiled a list of at least 21 other school names that administrators say are connected to the Confederacy, and whose names could be changed eventually.

Parents from some of the schools spoke at the board meeting to express support for the name changes – as did board member Joyce Foreman.

“I came through a segregated school system; it’s clearly personal to me,” she said. “I particularly am grateful for the parents that have come forward from many of the schools.”

The Dallas school board could vote on how to proceed later this month.

The consideration to change schools named after Confederate leaders, slave owners and segregationists – as well as take down Confederate monuments – is happening nationwide, following the violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a “Unite the Right” rally.

Other stories this morning:

  • A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee has been removed from the Oak Lawn Park in Dallas named for him. An art conservator Thursday watched to ensure a crane brought in from Houston properly lifted the statue of the Confederate general from its pedestal. Amid growing controversy since recent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Dallas City Council voted last week to remove the statue. The Dallas Morning News reports the city plans to transport the statue to an undisclosed location, and a Confederate monuments task force is expected to recommend a new permanent home for the sculpture.
  • Flood experts, state officials and meteorologists are starting to get the full scope of Hurricane Harvey's behavior – and the damage it inflicted on the Texas Coast. In our Friday Conversation, KERA’s Rick Holter talked to Eric Berger, a longtime journalist with a meteorology degree, who created the digital news startup called Space City Weather.
  • The ninth annual North Texas Giving Day has raised a record-setting $39 million for area nonprofits and charities. Thursday’s 18-hour event, powered by the Communities Foundation of Texas, also raised more than $370,000 for hurricane relief. KERA received 2,450 individual donations, totaling just over $376,000. Since 2009, $195 million has been donated to area nonprofits as part of North Texas Giving Day.

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.

Former KERA staffer Stephanie Kuo is an award-winning radio journalist who worked as a reporter and administrative producer at KERA, overseeing and coordinating editorial content reports and logistics for the Texas Station Collaborative – a statewide news consortium including KERA, KUT in Austin, Houston Public Media and Texas Public Radio in San Antonio.