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.
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.
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