Tonight the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board renamed Lee High School to Liberty High School.

With emails from all over the country, the majority white board would not vote to name the school after the ONLY Black man to serve as governor of Louisiana.

After fighting this for years finally the name is changed. I’m not surprised that the board wouldn’t honor the right side of history. I’m not surprised that southern white politicians can’t fathom placing a Black man’s name on the side of a school.

We can be hashtags and statistics, but we can’t be honored for our contributions to American history. In a city that is 56% Black not a single public school is named after a Black person.

The school district is 81% Black. Far too often we accept crumbs and celebrate, tonight was another kick the can down the road moment for Baton Rouge.

We have streets all over this city named after losers of the confederacy, but a Black man who actually won and advanced liberty still isn’t worthy of honor in Baton Rouge. That should tell you where we are as a city.

PBS Pinchback, people all over this country know your name now. Even if our school board won’t honor you — we still lift up your name
#KeepPushing.