On September 28th, 2017, the Dallas Independent School District took a vote to fast track the renaming process for four elementary schools: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, William L. Cabell, and Albert Sidney Johnston. These schools were chosen because each of these men were generals in the Confederacy.

As it turns out, these schools and their names arose out of very specific and rather divisive political eras. And in order to understand why it was necessary to undo the actions of older generations, we have to revisit them.