The Fairfax County School Board voted Thursday to change the name of Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, Virginia, from the Virginia native to one in favor of deceased Georgia Rep. John Lewis.
“The Board heard from students, teachers and staff members, families, and the community about the old name,” school board Chairman Ricardy Anderson said on the district website.
“It was important for us to be mindful of these comments and to select a name that reflected the diversity and multiculturalism that currently exists at the school and in our community."
The renaming of the high school is the latest removal of Lee – who led Confederate forces during the American Civil War – from public space, including statues, memorials and portraits since the protests and riots that have followed the death of a Black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis since Memorial Day.
“The name Robert E. Lee is forever connected to the Confederacy, and Confederate values are ones that do not align with our community,” board member Tamara Derenak Kaufax said.
Lewis, who died in office on Friday at the age of 80, was a civil rights leader and 17-term Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from district centered on Atlanta.
Fairfax County is a heavily Democratic county where all of its countywide elected offices and its state legislature representatives are Democrats.
Robert E. Lee High School had a student body of 2,200 in 2019-2020 of which 45% was Hispanic, 24 percent was Asian, 15 percent was white and 13 percent was black, according to district figures.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.