The New Orleans School Board has taken Washington’s name off an elementary school. Its new policy prohibits honoring “former slave owners or others who did not respect opportunity for all.”31 That rules out Presidents Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Tyler, Taylor, and Grant, as well as Clay, Calhoun, and Robert E. Lee. Should African Americans, tens of thousands of whom carry these great names, go to court to get them changed? Is it Andrew Jackson, the Indian killer, or Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate legend, whose name Jesse Jackson proudly carries?
This is somewhat happening. Black names in younger generations are likely an attempt at a new ethnic identity.
