Through Massanutten Regional Governor’s School, Briana Brown has attended Stonewall Jackson High School in Shenandoah County.
Her junior and senior years have been spent at the school, which was renamed Mountain View High School in 2021. A Shenandoah County School Board vote in 2024 reinstated the name back to Stonewall Jackson High School.
“I was really just taken back and disappointed,” Brown, 18, said of her reaction when she heard Shenandoah County School Board was changing the name of her school again.
Brown said she thought the community had already worked to change and “leave the past and those harmful stereotypes behind.”
Brown, who is of mixed racial background, said the name change back to that of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson made her feel like the community did not care about students.
Brown’s friend’s mother was approached by the Virginia NAACP to file a lawsuit against Shenandoah County School Board last summer. And her friend’s mother asked Brown if she would like to also become a plaintiff in the case.
“The future of the students in Shenandoah County really made me want to join. Just because, if we let this slide, what’s next?” Brown said.
Brown said she thought it was better to be involved than sit on the sidelines.
“I hope that it shows people — whatever the outcome — that there are people who care,” Brown said of the lawsuit.
She also hopes it shows youth like herself and her friends hat “we are still working for social justice. We’re just normal kids who want to make a difference.”
Brown said she and her fellow plaintiffs will not stop and will not allow society to go in reverse.
She attributes her passion for civil rights to both of her parents, especially her mother who is a Special Education teacher. As a result, Brown was exposed to different cultures as a child and not sheltered from different perspectives.
Related stories
- ‘Reminders of Confederate legacies’: Shenandoah County NAACP sues school board
- Shenandoah County returning names of Jackson, Lee, Ashby to public schools
- Lawsuit against Shenandoah County School Board proceeds to trial
Brown will graduate Stonewall Jackson High School in May and plans to attend UVA and become a psychologist. She hopes to also continue her civil rights advocacy through research and reading about Black American history at UVA.
The Shenandoah County School Board declined to comment for this story.
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Rebecca Barnabi
