Midland school board votes to restore school name honoring Confederate general

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MIDLAND — The Midland Independent School District’s board of trustees voted Tuesday night to rename a school after Robert E. Lee, reversing a former board’s efforts to distance itself from the Confederate general five years ago.

In a divided 4-3 vote, the trustees voted to return one of its schools, formerly Legacy High, back to Midland Lee High.

Railing against what he described as toxic political correctness, Matt Friez, a board member who voted to reinstate Lee’s name, said institutions donning Confederate names have “outgrown” their controversies. In a lengthy statement, Friez said that replacing Confederate-era monikers and removing statues was an attack on the “country’s heritage.”

“This is a distraction from what really matters right now,” said Ebony Coleman, founder of Jumpstart Midland, an education advocacy group in Midland, adding that the school district should focus on the students’ academic outcomes. “I feel like (the board) knew that this was ultimately what they were going to do.”

Stephanie Howard, the district’s superintendent, said the change could cost them as much as $62,000.

The board’s vote came after more than 45 residents delivered impassioned testimonies for more than two hours, in turns drawing praise and admonishment from the audience. At many points throughout the evening, the board requested that residents in attendance remain quiet.

Parents, alumni and former teachers who spoke on Tuesday evening said the school’s ties to Lee, commander of the Confederate states army, provoked hurt and discomfort, saying his name evoked a period of history when schools were segregated.

Sue Roseberry, who in 1981 moved to West Texas from New Mexico, said her two daughters and most of her grandchildren attended the school before it was renamed in 2020. She said she cringed when students flew the Confederate flag and played Dixie, a song that became a fixture for the movement.

“I want you to know that you have an opportunity [to associate the school] with something that uplifts all of our students.”

Barbara Hanley, who taught in the school district for 28 years before retiring, called the effort a waste of money, that “only serves to divide the community further.”

“Let the old name die,” she said.

Many at the meeting also waved the school’s old flags with Lee’s inscription, expressing their support for the name change. Among them was Carrie McNeal, who said the board should have taken up a recommendation in 2020 to change the school's name to Legacy for Equality and Excellence, or L.E.E.

McNeal said she was more interested in preserving the school’s history, rather than the man it was named after.

“Generations of Midlanders attended Midland Lee, so I’m not here to fight for a dead man or his legacy, that means nothing to me,” she said.

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