Michael Nelson Miller graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler in 1961, a few years after the and before it was desegregated.
During his college years, he realized his alma mater was drenched in nostalgia for the Confederacy.
鈥淓verything at the school had been named for something having to do with the Lost Cause,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I began to realize that the Lost Cause was such a fraud. And then I began to think, how does that fit in with my Christian faith?鈥�
Miller, a minister and professor of history at Texas State University, is joining community members urging a change to the school鈥檚 name.
He and two other white graduates, Byron Baldwin and P. M. (Marc) Bailes, to the board of the Tyler Independent School District. In the letter, which was also published by the Tyler Morning Telegraph, they said African American citizens are doubly burdened: they pay taxes to support Robert E. Lee High School and also have to explain to their children that Lee fought to keep slavery.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 fair,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 an issue of fairness.鈥�
Residents of Tyler have pushed before for the district to change the name. Indeed, the . The violent white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 ignited a year of debate.
鈥淚鈥檓 a child of the South, I鈥檝e lived in Tyler for 40 years, and I鈥檝e never understood why it鈥檚 named Robert E. Lee,鈥� said the Reverend M. K. Mast at the time, . 鈥淚t hurts when we go by and see this.鈥�
Tyler ISD .
Recent protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis have renewed the push to change the name of Robert E. Lee High and also John Tyler High School, named for a former U.S. president who also sided with the Confederacy.
Cross country runner Trude Lamb has
, school board president Wade Washmon said, 鈥淭his time in between school years will hopefully be used to discuss, and find both consensus and meaningful resolution in a unified manner.鈥�
He also said the board would limit statements on the matter to meetings of the panel in which the name issue is on the agenda.
A board meeting is , but there鈥檚 no public agenda yet.
that Tyler ISD鈥檚 superintendent said he on the name change this time.
