Julianne Moore Starts Petition to Rename High School Named After Confederate General

Julianne Moore has started a petition to rename her high school that is currently named after a Confederate General. The award-winning actress attended J.E.B. Stuart High School in Virginia from the years 1975-1977, and is now petitioning that the school change its name, as the General was an advocate of slavery.

Moore is pushing for the school to be named after Thurgood Marshall, who was a major civil rights leader, as well as the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. The school was named after James Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart back in 1959, when it was founded in Fairfax, Virginia.
The actress is working with another alumni of the high school, Bruce Cohen, to get the high school’s name changed, and the two released a statement on their desire for the switch. “Today, this school is attended by a diverse group of students who should not have to attend a school that bears the name of a man who fought to keep African Americans enslaved. So we’re calling on the Fairfax County School Board to rename it Thurgood Marshall High School. Not only was Marshall the first African American Supreme Court Justice and a civil rights leader, he was our neighbor and a member of our community,” they stated in a co-statement.


The two also discussed in their pitch that the school is supporting a “history of racism,” following the mass shooting at a Charleston historical church in South Carolina, where nine African-Americans were shot and killed. “It’s time to rename J.E.B. Stuart High School. Please sign our petition to help us honor a true leader and hero by creating Thurgood Marshall High School,” they also state in their campaign. Moore has already been receiving support for the petition, which is currently on Change.org, containing a total of 28,000 signatures and counting.