Sunday Focus: Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery

    Yes, this posting is a little bit about the controversy over institutions named for confederate/slave-owning people. 
     Lee was one of those, and at least one Montgomery legislator has suggested the name be changed.
     The school opened just a few months after the Supreme Court Brown v The Board of Education ruling, and it was named for Lee at the suggestion of a civil club. 
     The first graduating class of the school celebrated their 55th class reunion this weekend, and a history of the school has been published.
     Here's the write-up from New South Publishing:

Robert E. Lee High School has been a cornerstone of the Montgomery, Alabama public school system since 1955. To mark the 60th anniversary of its founding, a group of former students, faculty, and staff has collaborated on the book 'Echoes' of Robert E. Lee High School: The First Decade, 1955-65, newly published by NewSouth Books.
'Echoes' of Robert E. Lee High School is a work of history and more. Its contributors write about their personal involvement at the school with research on the same. The "echoes" of the title refers to how life experiences reverberate back to us. Thus, from the beginning, the book's editors and writers thought of this as a little volume of big memories. It is a compendium with photos of stories about the strong, positive experiences recalled and a few negative ones not easily forgotten. The book speaks to the ways in which a school can shape and inspire the lives of its graduates, young and old.
Contributors to 'Echoes' of Robert E. Lee High School include former Lee principal and superintendent of Montgomery Public Schools Clinton Carter; former Lee drum major, Kerry Palmer, current head of Trinity Presbyterian School; former president of the "L" club, Roger Stifflemire, currently principal of Prattville High School; and former Lee Student Council president, Dr. Jim Vickrey, retired president of the University of Montevallo. Award-winning nationally syndicated columnist and author Rheta Grimsley Johnson, a former Lee newspaper features editor, contributes the book's foreword.
'Echoes' of Robert E. Lee High School is newly published by NewSouth Books. Find out more at http://newsouthbooks.com/echoes.
'Echoes' of Robert E. Lee High School is available from NewSouth Books at 334-834-3556 or http://www.newsouthbooks.com/echoes. ISBN: 978-1-60306-379-1; Trade paper; $20.00.

     There is some talk about tearing down the old school as part of a planned widening and realignment of Ann Street. That project will shift that end of the street to the East across the school's property, linking it up with Federal Drive. The project is expected to be underway soon.
     The Washington Post reported:

In all, 78 U.S. schools are named for Lee, Vocativ found. Another 11 are named for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and at least four are named for General Stonewall Jackson.

     You can watch an interview with one of the authors, Dr. Jim Vickrey, on ABC Montgomery tomorrow (Sunday) Morning at 9:00 AM. 
     Set your DVR.  
     Also on the program, an interview about Lighthouse Counseling Service in Montgomery.