Petitions demand name changes for Walton, Wheeler high schools

by

East Cobb school lockdowns

Online petitions have been circulating in recent days demanding that the Cobb County School District change the names of Walton High School and Wheeler High School in East Cobb because of their namesakes.

The petitions, created at change.org, say that the names should be changed because of the racism of George Walton and Joseph Wheeler.

Walton was one of Georgia’s signatories to the Declaration of Independence and Wheeler was a Confederate general in the Civil War.

The Walton petition was created Monday by Joseph Fisher, who identified himself as a Walton student, and is titled “Rename Walton High School, Break the Cycle of White Supremacy.”

Despite George Walton’s historical significance, the petition states that:

“No one ever talks about how George Walton was a white supremacist, belonged to a slave owning family, and spent his political career championing white supremacy in Georgia by stripping Native Americans time and time again of their land. For a school well known on the national stage, it is sickening that they choose to carry themselves using a man who represents one thing: continuing white supremacy in the American South.”

Fisher said as a Walton student:

“Every day that I am on campus I feel hate and oppression from the student body and the administration. I am constantly gaslighted and singled out for my experiences as a person of color, made fun of or the subject of jokes based on the color of my skin. This year, Walton made the news when a white student followed a black student around the school making whipping noises on their cell phone. I couldn’t even say I was surprised, just because that behavior is so normalized at Walton. I wouldn’t wish that mistreatment on anyone, and I certainly won’t stand for it in my community.”

His petition had 500 signatures as of Tuesday evening.

Georgia Department of Education data last updated on March 5 indicated that Walton, which opened in 1974, had 155 black students out of an enrollment of 2,616.

Wheeler graduation rate, East Cobb graduation rates

The Wheeler petition was created over the weekend by “Wildcats for Change,” and those individuals also have started a private Facebook group.

They identify themselves as “lifelong members of Wildcat Nation” but contend it’s “past time” to remove Wheeler’s name from the school:

“Students do not deserve to attend a school whose namesake celebrates a Confederate history and one that was named for a hateful purpose: to hurt and shame Black youth that were, by court order, integrated into our county’s white school system. It does not go unnoticed that the school was named after the passing of Brown v Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. It does not go unnoticed that the school was named after the state of Georgia finally began to adhere to the ruling, seven years after it passed. It does not go unnoticed that the Cobb County School Board finally voted to desegregate in 1965—the same year they named Joseph Wheeler High School.”

The Wheeler petition—which referenced the deaths of black citizens George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery in recent weeks, sparking nationwide protests—has more than 2,100 signatures.

Wheeler, which opened in 1965, has a black student body of 811 out of a total enrollment of 2,159 as of March 5.

Cobb Board of Education member Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, said in an interview with The Marietta Daily Journal that she’s heard from some people who wanted to change Wheeler’s name.

“I think that this is just a start in Cobb as these conversations happen all around the country, including among military leaders, who are calling for bases to be renamed,” she was quoted as saying in the MDJ‘s “Around Town” political fodder column to be published Wednesday.

Davis said in response to a request for comment from East Cobb News that “I support community members feeling empowered enough to organize around an issue.”

When asked if she supported the name changes and if so would she propose resolutions, Davis said: “With everything I know about our board majority and district leadership, I do not see this formally being debated anytime soon.”

UPDATED: After this story was published Davis signed the Wheeler petition.

George Walton, who lived from 1749-1804 and served in the Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Georgia Militia, also was twice a Georgia governor and served as a U.S. Senator.

George Walton Academy, a private school in Monroe, Ga., also is named after him.

Joseph Wheeler lived from 1836-1906, grew up in Georgia and Connecticut and was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. He was a cavalry officer for the Confederacy, commanding at campaigns in Shiloh, Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Atlanta and against the Union army’s March to the Sea under Gen. William Sherman.

After the war, Wheeler was readmitted to the U.S. Army, represented Alabama in Congress, and served with Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War.

He is one of the few Confederate veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A bronze statue of Wheeler is one of 11 honoring Confederate military leaders at the U.S. Capitol.

It’s recently become a subject of efforts to be removed by Congressional Democrats.

Neither of the petitions offer suggestions for new names for Walton and Wheeler.

Related content

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

28 thoughts on “Petitions demand name changes for Walton, Wheeler high schools”

  1. I would sincerely like to sit with Joseph Fisher and talk with him. I am a female immigrant and 20 year East Cobb resident. I would just like him to hear my perspective and have respectful discourse.

  2. Let. It. Go. it is in the past. it is history. Most kids have no idea about the schools namesake- and most do not care.

  4. So many people claim there is little or no racism in East Cobb. From the many posts opposed to changing the name and the lame excuses I would beg to differ. And the school superintendent said changing the names is silly. He should step down immediately if that is his attitude. Leaving confederate names on schools is flat out racist and you know it.

  5. Reading these comments has been enlightening. I commend Mr. Fisher for taking a stance and using his voice-this is America and you have the right to free speech. I agree with you, JM. First they all need to understand the definition of the word racism and apply it to the history of this country. Second, they need to understand that black students come home daily with stories of white kids calling them racist names and ridiculing them with impunity at these schools. The schools document it as teasing, not racism or bullying and push it under the rug. The fact that they say get over it, means that black history does not matter to them. Black people are always told to go back and study history and get over it. Well, I challenge you all to go back and study black history. The white students learn to spew their racist thoughts from their parents who learned it from their parents all the way back to the stealing of this land from the NATIVE AMERICANS. If an opinion is given contradictory to their ideals then they begin to call names and paint all black people with the same broad brush. Stop telling Black people to get over it and start getting in a position to see that change is coming and complaining about it as well as dismissing it, only empowers those you wish would shut up. The renaming of a school after a person(s) you see as hero’s only shows your supremacy, arrogance, and racism. But if you want Black people to stop it- then go to the NAACP or BLM and tell them in person your disdain with black people. Stand up the way Mr. Fisher is, speak your mind in public- have a rally and speak your racist truth. But please know many Black people already see you as cowards unwilling to do nothing more than white wash history and demonize Black men, women, and children as thieves and looters, when it is historically accurate that stealing and looting began with you. But you would only know this if you actually read and understood black history.

  6. I attended Walton HS as a freshman the first year it opened and was the first 4-year graduating class of 1979. I did some research on George Walton, and the claim he owned slaves is contradictory. Some sources claimed he did, others that he didn’t. Regardless, the record seems clear that after his conversion to Quakerism, Walton became an ardent abolitionist. As with all of our historical figures, his past is complex, and can’t be summed up simply by the statement, “he was a slave owner”, regardless if true or not.

  7. Ya’ll act like these schools are hundreds of years old when they were built in the 60’s to serve the “white flight”. Don’t pretend that these schools weren’t named of after prominent names of the confederacy in order to discourage black families from moving here and sending their kids to the new white schools. It was a big FU to the civil rights movement that was happing in the city. They should be renamed to literally ANYTHING else. So stupid that you any of you people would have a problem with that.

  8. “”WOW”” I TOTALLY AGREE WITH MOVING ON AND STOP PLAYING THE BLAME GAME !!!EVERYONE WHO READS THIS NEED TO LOOK UP THE FIRST SLAVE OWNER IN AMERICA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    YOU WILL BE SURPRISED !!!!!!! NOW STOP THE PETTY STUFF ,HISTORY IS IN THE PAST AND WE ALL KNOW IT MOVE ON AND BE PRODUCTIVE INSTEAD OF DESTRUCTIVE!!! IF MORE PEOPLE PUT AS MUCH EFFORT INTO THEIR HOME AND WORK THIS COUNTRY WOULD BE IN A BETTER PLACE STOP IT PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!!!

  9. Enough is enough what will “they “want to change next ? will they take George Washington off the dollar bill & Lincoln off the Five??
    So currency isnt current any longer? Leave schools alone and know History is History
    And move on people!!

  10. Joseph Wheeler did not “serve with Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War.” Wheeler was a major general, division commander, and second in command of the Fifth Corps. Roosevelt was a mere lieutenant colonel, well below Wheeler in the chain of command.

  11. So if we are going to rename schools then I suppose that eventually GA will need to rename approx half of its 159 counties as that’s about how many are named for people connected to the Civil war, Indian wars or Mexican wars. Where is GA going to get the money to fund that? That’s just counties in GA. And for the record George Walton died in 1804 so 50 years before the CW. Yes he was a plantation owner as were many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence….This is crazy. Next thing you know they will be calling for the schools to stop teaching history too.

  12. I wholeheartedly agree with these young people. It’s right to consider the ingrained nature of racism, and that to which we aspire. Picking a confederate soldier for whom they named the school in 1965 was no accident. Surely, they can find more deserving namesakes, people who inspire ideas and personify education.

    • But Joseph Wheeler gets no credit at all for serving in the Spanish American war with Teddy Roosevelt? I would place him an example of one who saw his incorrect ways and swore allegiance to the US as an officer after he was defeated.

  13. Hmmm, how many of these millennials were so oppressed, they gladly put George Walton High School on their college applications?? Double standard folks, wanna claim you are oppressed but also want to wow college’s by listing the highly prestigious school on your application.

  15. Another snowflake virtue signalling by crying racist at faux racism. These kids need to start reading and understanding history. You have to also evaluate history with the norms at the time. I realize these kids brains aren’t fully developed yet, but give me a break. You should be grateful that you are a part of a great school instead of tearing it down. I think a little gratitude can go a long way. If you focus and graduate and use your efforts for good, not to tearing
    down, you could really achieve something.

  17. This is so wrong on so many levels. They keep saying that Black Lives Matter and racism is bad; however, their actions are saying that ONLY Black Lives Matter. They keep saying that racism is bad, but their actions show that racism, to them, is fine if they’re the ones doing it. They keep saying that white people treat black people badly, but it’s fine if blacks treat everyone else badly. Every time a racial statement comes up and/or a racial difference is highlighted, racism is proven to be still alive. Think back on who does it more than anyone else and the cause for all the frustration on the parts of those who are not promoting it, found in all race groups, is obvious.

    Now, they’re trying to change history again and set it to what’s okay with the black agenda. I 100% disagree with the renaming of the schools.

  19. If you identify as an oppression fighter but run out of actual oppression to fight, then you either have to invent it or go back in history to find something. In this case the 1700s and 1800s. People need to find hobbies.

  20. That is Baloney !! You don’t sterilize history. It is what it is,. Learn to live and learn from it..
    America does not need to rewrite history over these incidents.
    Who said>”He who controls history controls the future”.

    • Nicely stated!!! Teenagers in general are not going to school thinking these thoughts. Yeah you wonder why and how things were named. But renaming anything that has to do with Southern history is unreal.

    • There’s a difference between sterilizing and celebrating. Seriously, what does it matter to you if they take a loser, confederate name off a school and name it something else. Does it really change your life in ANY way? NYC has it right, just give it a PS#
      Why do southerners need to monogram everything?

Comments are closed.