Harrisonburg, VA – A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia issued an opinion on August 6, 2026, finding that the Shenandoah County School Board discriminated against Black students by reinstating school names that honor Confederate generals. The Court found that the evidence at trial overwhelmingly supported the students’ claims that the School Board’s actions violated the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing them equal protection of the laws, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, ensuring equal access to education and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, which is a promise to stamp out the vestiges of segregation.
In delivering a decisive victory to students, U.S. District Court Judge Michael F. Urbanski wrote that “The decision to rename the schools after Confederate leaders cannot be divorced from racial discrimination. Lee, Jackson, and Ashby fought to preserve a political system that enslaved Blacks, and their legacy was used as a tool to fight school desegregation. Had the Confederate cause succeeded, the United States would look much different today, and the plaintiffs may not have the very rights exercised in this lawsuit to petition the Government to redress grievances. U.S. Const. amend. I. In 2020, the School Board recognized the racially divisive symbolism that the Confederate leaders represent and removed their names from its schools. The School Board’s subsequent vote to reinstate the names necessarily embraces the ideals for which Lee, Jackson, and Ashby fought – including the enslavement of Black people – an ideology patently inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
“One after another, students presented heartfelt and unwavering testimony, describing how Confederate school names make them feel unwelcome, devalued and ultimately inferior to their white peers,” said Kaitlin Banner, deputy legal director at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. “The Court acknowledged that such names inflict real, racially disproportionate harm. Just as the Court found in Brown v. Board of Education, reinstating these names sends a message to Black students that they are not valued and diminishes their educational opportunities.”
“For decades, the practice of honoring Confederate leaders in Virginia schools has been steeped in a history of racial discrimination,” said Reverend Cozy Bailey, president of the NAACP Virginia State Conference. “The School Board’s 2024 renaming decision is impossible to explain except through the lens of race. Long before the Supreme Court consolidated cases brought by my predecessors in Virginia and other states into the landmark Brown case, the NAACP has stood up for Black students.”
“Equal educational opportunity is not an aspiration; it is a legal right,” said Li Reed of Covington & Burling. “Today’s decision ensures that schools cannot maintain racially discriminatory conditions that deny students of that right and demonstrates that these vital legal protections remain enforceable. We commend our student plaintiffs whose tenacity has helped safeguard not only their own rights, but also the rights of the students who follow them.”
“Our clients showed remarkable courage in standing up for themselves, their classmates, and their community,” said Ashley Joyner Chavous, a partner at Holland & Knight. “The School Board removed these Confederate names in 2020 after recognizing them as symbols of discrimination and racism, only to reinstate them four years later. As the Court recognized, the names did not become any less racially divisive in the intervening years. Today’s ruling reaffirms every student’s right to an education free from intentional racial discrimination. We are grateful that these students and their community received the justice they deserved.”
In 2024, the Shenandoah County School Board reinstated the names Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School. Just four years earlier, the School Board had retired the names that originally honored Confederate leaders during Massive Resistance – a Virginia-led strategy to resist school desegregation following the Brown v. the Board of Education decision – because of their discriminatory impact on Black students and their families.
In June 2024, six students across the two schools and the NAACP Virginia State Conference brought the lawsuit to challenge the School Board’s 2024 decision to restore the names on the grounds that it violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The students and the NAACP Virginia State Conference won their First Amendment claim at summary judgment and proceeded to trial on Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Equal Educational Opportunities Act claims in December 2025.
As the Court found, “the reinstatement of the Confederate school names has a disproportionate impact on Black students in Shenandoah County.” Students were “credible and compelling” in describing that “they feel unwelcome and uncomfortable attending school, they feel inferior to their White peers or feel as though they have less value than their White peers, they are unable to trust peers and teachers at school, they are constantly reminded of their ancestors’ history of enslavement, and they experience harassment and intimidation in the community for speaking out against the Confederate school names.”
The Court ordered the School Board to remove the names “Stonewall Jackson” and “Ashby-Lee” and adopt new school names that are not racially discriminatory.
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee, Covington & Burling LLP, and Holland & Knight LLP represent the NAACP Virginia State Conference and student families.
