Politics

Online Petition Aims to Wipe Civil War General's Name off San Angelo ISD Middle School

By Joe Hyde, Jun 5, 2020
 

SAN ANGELO, TX — The Robert E. Lee Rebels will be a thing of the past if petition organizer Jessie Ramon, Jr. has his way. He has gathered 1,292 of his goal of 1,500 online signatures for removing Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s name from one of the three middle schools in the San Angelo ISD.

“The school built in 1949 has donned the name of the Confederate Commander who fought for slavery during the American Civil War. Robert E. Lee believed African Americans were subordinate to his own racial identity and had slaves himself. More than 70 years later many students continue to walk through those doors, entering their teenage years only to learn about the atrocities of the American Civil War in history class,” Ramon argued in the petition.

There were rumblings of a name change for the school in 2017, but the San Angelo ISD spokesman at that time, Derrick Jackson, said the controversy wasn’t on his radar back then.

The rioting over the death of black man George Floyd, where four Minneapolis police officers have been charged with his murder, has cleared the battleground again to consider a name change for the school.

In 2017, Midland ISD removed the song, “Dixie,” as the Midland Lee High School Rebels fight song. Also that year, the University of Texas removed statues of Confederate notables from its campus and tucked them away inside a museum.

At Texas A&M, a similar petition is circulating to remove the statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross, who served as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. He also served two terms as the Texas governor, then saved the land grant university from being dismantled as A&M College president during the 1890s. The university in Alpine is also named after Sul Ross.

If arguments to remove Lee’s name from the middle school are successful, San Angelo will need to reconcile with other Confederate names in the area, including the county’s name, Tom Green County.

Brigadier General Thomas Green (1814-1864) served in the Trans-Mississippi Army of the CSA. He was killed in the Red River Campaign when he led his cavalry division against a battery of Union gunboats during the Battle of Blair’s Landing near Shreveport, Louisiana. Green is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin.

Beauregard Avenue, the major east-west roadway in town that divides the crossing streets into north and south addresses, was named after CSA General P.G.T. Beauregard (1818-1893). General Beauregard was from Louisiana, and having resigned as West Point Superintendent at the onset of the war, led the CSA soldiers at the Battle of Charleston, the First Bull Run, Shiloh and Corinth, and Richmond.

The San Angelo ISD Board of Trustees will have to set the renaming of Lee Middle School on its agenda before any official debate over the name change can commence. The petition was initiated late Thursday afternoon, leaving no time for any official reactions.

The mascot for Lee Middle School is the Rebels. The petition is here.

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Comments

MjNS, Fri, 06/05/2020 - 03:58

I wondered when the nutbars would get around to this schools' name. Let's just all rewrite history, don't face anything negative, don't have any reminders that are not politically correct. Pull down the statues and smooth the face of this town like a custard pie.

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Can remove all of the historical monuments you like, but you're only going to relive it soon and see more of them after the NEXT civil war is over......

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People are killed at "protests" your protest no longer has the moral high ground. Stop trying to "fix" the past you idiots. Work on your future if you plan on living to see it!

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You proved my point about how traitorous and unpatriotic that pro-Robert E. Lee attitudes are! You seem to be relishing the idea of another Civil War. You apparently look forward to the violent overthrow of the greatest nation in the world!!!

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Erasing signs of history does not make it go away. Learning to live with the signs is a healthy thing. Some would like to forget that certain historical actions ever occurred because it pains them to remember. Some believe that historically the War Between the States was such a painful time that no one should be forced to confront it daily or at any other time. I am almost certain that Union markers have not been removed. Will Shiloh, Manassas, Pea Ridge all be burned to the ground? We should learn from history; generations later we should be able to take a perspective on the right and the wrong and use it to teach our children the values of tolerance and dignity. Shall we take apart the Alamo so as not to offend someone? Should we take down the Lincoln Memorial because Abraham Lincoln was more worried about secession
than abolition? Removing the name of the school is dangerous and in the long run it is a shallow approach to an historical issue. We must all stop wanting things for ourselves and begin to want things for their intrinsic ethical, spiritual, and moral value. There are lessons to be learned everywhere, which ones you take are up to you and nothing is going to change that.

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Seriously?! This is part of our history people - like it or not! Freaks need to get a life!

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I don't care if some racist like you enjoys that pro-traitorous defenses of Robert E. Lee offend me. You love to call anyone like me a snowflake or a "freak." I am honored to be called those names by racists like you because it means I am morally right to be anti-racist. I think you should stop and think, though, about what it says about you that you are happy that non-white kids aged 12-14 feel ashamed to go to a school named after a racist traitor. You obviously enjoy the pain felt by those children.

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You will never satisfy these people,leave history alone and learn from it ,otherwise it will repeat .

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I will not sign a petition that will lead to Americans forgetting the military Commander in charge of the treacherous insurrection. He must be remembered as a man who shunned democracy for the killing of loyal Americans.

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How about some of those Tejanos that died at the Alamo? A lot of Tejanos perished fighting tyranny. Your joke shows the level we have to stoop to comprehend you. It must lonely down there

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wDougL, Fri, 06/05/2020 - 10:30

... history! It's time for these people to understand that history can not be removed or rewritten! Removing a name or a statute is not going to help people in the future to stop the spread of racism. It's time for these people to "Stop" blaming present and future generations for the actions of past generations! People that complain and cry over what transpired in the past ... are the people that are keeping racism and hatred alive. I want to ask these people... how can we as a nation move forward to a better future without racism and hatred... if you keep bringing up the action of past generations. These people obviously do not understand that "they" are the ones that are a big portion of the "Problem"!

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"As you remove those hateful and racist Confederate statues, keep in mind that those are effigies of historical figures that represent the same party that you STILL endorse." - Amiri King

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In the 1960's, Republican President Nixon and his peers changed the Republican Party into the party of racism, and Presidents JFK and LBJ changed the Democratic Party into the party of civil rights. Yes, President Lincoln, who was betrayed by the traitorous Lee, was a Republican. That is why Nixon's shift of the Republican Party toward racism was so sad and ironic. And it is also why it is ironic that the "Party of Lincoln" today is the party that wants to continue to honor Robert E. Lee and to erase history by implying that Lee was anything other than an enemy of our beloved nation.

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Now the Democrats have surrendered their party to 90's crack babies, 30ish basement dwellers, race-baiters, thugs, deadbeats, criminals and ingrate breeders.

As an adult, how do deal with unruly, boisterous children? You shout back, take away their privileges and send them to their rooms.

The Left has blown their load, we all see how effortlessly adroit their foster pets are in transforming everything they touch into complete shit. We hear the snowflake's outcries , the "me generation's" childish demands. It's time for the adults to clean up their mess, and enact measures to ensure that the next time these animals are let out of their cages, they'll be dealt with accordingly.

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wDougL, Thu, 06/11/2020 - 16:35

... if your comment was for my benefit... :-) ... LOL ... if you knew me ... you would know that I am always "Cool and Calm" ... and I am most likely waaay older that you "little girl" ... and instead of saying "Dude" ... you should be addressing me as " Sir" or at least " Mr." ... but I am guessing that you were never taught to talk or refer to people much older than you with a little respect. I don't know you but ... since you referred to me as "Dude" ... and you are not showing me any respect... I will refer to you as "Brat" ... I think that's fair ... yeah ... but I am always calm ... maybe you need to get over ... yourself!

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Well if you are indeed older than me sir, that's what I do anyways. I was raised that way. I was not talking to you I was talking about Lares Deces. I was not responding to your post.

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wDougL, Fri, 06/12/2020 - 13:39

... you said "Well, if you are indeed older than me Sir... so you do the math ... I was born in November of 1956! So, M.G. ... if it turns out that "You" are older than me ... I will do the right thing and address you with respect!

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wDougL, Thu, 06/11/2020 - 17:05

I am always calm ... not one word that I said in my comment indicated that I "Was Not Calm"... my comment was "sarcasm " to you and those that seem to be offended by ... well ... anything and everything... that isn't "your way" or "agrees with you" or anything that you can come up with that is not in agreement with your thinking! Little Gal ... you need to stop being so "vain and get over yourself "... and since you called me "Dude" and not "Sir" ... since I know I am way older than you ... in the future... I will refer to you as "Spoiled Brat"... I think that's a fair deal ... call me Dude all you want ... and I will call you Spoiled Brat ... every time you refer to me as "Dude" ... by the way ... have a nice refreshing glass of Koolaid... you'll feel better! Have a pleasant evening Brat!

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wDougL, Fri, 06/12/2020 - 13:25

... before you fill the rant page with your comments about it ! Dang Magical Gurl ... you need something besides the rant section of SA Live to occupy your time!

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of either your magical abilities or your gender. So, since it would be totally non- apropos to request proof of sexual identity, may I request a little magic show? I'd love to see you make yourself disappear. I'll be waiting......

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American History has been around since the 1450's and we can't destroy American History no matter how hard you try History is History

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The people who originally named Robert E. Lee Middle School did not do it because they wanted to make sure people did not forget about the treason committed by Lee. They were unpatriotic racists who considered Lee a hero.

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How dare you talk of the people that agreed to name this school years back. Do you know them? Do you know their relatives that still live in the county? We should all agree to disagree but don’t come at people pushing your type of thinking just because you have hate issues.

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"How dare we judge the people who named schools after Nazis!"

That's you, right now, defending slave owners. "Agree to disagree" is literally a statement ignoring factual information because you want to hide what you don't want others to see.

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You say I have "hate issues" because I pointed out the fact that the people who originally named the school meant the name to be a positive gesture of respect toward Robert E. Lee, whose doctrine of white supremacy is extremely hateful toward black (and all non-white) people. People like you who defend racists have a lot more "hate issues" than I have. I love the kids of all races who go to and who will go to that school. Speaking out about this name is an act of love.

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Pull your sanctimonious panties out of the crack of your ass .

There aren't any 12-14 year old San Angeloans who've so much as troubled themselves to learn who in the hell Lee is.

Many of your Liberal heroes are nothing more than race-baiters, terrorists, thugs and criminals.

You're a blind, credulous follower, nothing more than a member of a cult that with any luck, will be erased from existence in the near future.

Not even animals shit where they eat, yet you Leftist assholes have surely acquired the taste for such dining habits.

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My kids went to Lee Middle School, so I happen to know that the teachers there DO teach the kids about Robert E. Lee and the South during the Civil War. The students are the Lee Rebels, which means that they are even encouraged to identify with a traitorous rebellion against our great country. That's just wrong! On the wall at the school that the students walk by every day, the SAISD has emblazoned one of Lee's sanctimonious, hypocritical quotations. The official SAISD attitude toward the school's name is that it is meant as a tribute to Lee and to the Southern rebellion against America during the Civil War. It's no surprise that even today many Texans are still traitors to America, joining secession groups, the KKK, etc., in light of this continued worship of that racist traitor Lee and the enemy rebels of the South.

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CPF, Fri, 06/05/2020 - 11:44

How much more of this kind of crap do the majority of people need to force-fed before someone with some stones stands up, speaks up, and says, "no more, not here!"?

Where's the petition to keep and retain the name, "Robert E. Lee Middle School" located? That's the one I want to sign.

What's next? Yeah ok, let's rename Tom Green County, and then we can go after Beauregard Ave for good measure. If San Angelo sits idly by and lets this happen, then go ahead and sign up to have the county be to renamed Snowflake County - you'll deserve it. Grow Some Stones!

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Lets talk about Grant and Sherman. Revered Northern generals who burnt cities to the ground. I mean to the ground. they're statues still stand. But thats OK. tbobtexas

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Grant and Sherman are heroes to any real American because they fought racism, white supremacy, and anti-democratic exploitation of all working people. Idiots like you have no right to consider yourselves patriotic.

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The recourse of any Nazi, only we love our country and you can only love your country if you agree with us. Incidentally, Robert E Lee freed all his families slaves when he inherited and was also an opponent of both secession and slavery (He believed their "peculiar institution" held his section back) In those days the Union was very much an abstract. Yes a man maybe an American but he was first and foremost a Virginian or a Marylander a New Yorker or a Hoosier. Their state was their country and in both the North and the South their first loyalty was to their home and their state.

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Anyone who says someone is trying to "erase history" because of removal of racist monuments needs a history lesson in Nazi Germany. Not a single memorial remains of Nazi Germany--did we completely forget about it???

Jesus christ, all the faux outrage from snowflake republicans really chaps my ass.

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So your response is "common sense" yet whine about erasing history? Please tell me you know what common sense is...

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Bidi Bidi Bom Bom is good also Meh Jr High or The Building on Sherwood Way Jr High. Couple of other good names for the mascot... NPCs or Basement Dwellers. Be good to name them after those wanting to hide everything in life that offends them. Pretty soon we will just be speaking in nondescript grunts. Certainly don't discount the racial aspect of it all, but to ignore history is to repeat it. Are we still teaching history?

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You do realize that this will have absolutely no affect on history, right? Memorializing racism and traitors isn't preserving history, it's preserving their racism and traitorous reactions. We have museums for history, not schools and statues.

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once again someone with nothing to but sit around all day try to change history,but it wont go away history is history all people in history were wronged at one time get over it.

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It is sad that people want to take down monuments, change names, and destroy our nations history. It is what made America grow and be stronger. Taking these actions only divides the country even more. I do understand agree that it is not right for how Mr. Floyd was murdered. No one, not matter what race, should endure that! I believe we all have to stand up for what is right and I am standing up for a petition to keep the names the same.

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First, slavery was an abomination. Second, this renaming thing is bilge. It changes nothing. If anything, it erodes thoughts of the past and is therefore destructive.

Know the name. Find out about the man and why he did what he did. Make an attempt to understand the times.

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Schools are named after people to honor them. Someone who fought for what you admit is an abomination against morality DOES NOT deserve to be honored. No one has suggested that Lee's name be removed from the history books that are used to teach kids about the Civil War.

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