The Duval County School Board’s decision this week to approve the renaming of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School made headlines around the world.In the 1950's a group called the Daughters of the Confederacy pushed to name the school after Forrest, a Confederate general and among the founding leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, in what many say was a response to orders to desegregate Jacksonville’s schools.
Students will now have a chance to pick the school’s new name; the two top names in contention are Westside High School and Firestone High School.
Special guest host and regular panelist Fred Matthews leads our Friday media roundtable to discuss this and other stories with our panel of local journalists:
- Khristopher Brooks, Florida Times-Union reporter
- Kyle Sieg, WJXT Channel 4 producer
- Timothy Gibbons, Jacksonville Business Journal editor
- Jeffrey Billman, Folio Weekly editor
Additional topics include the proposal to build a 1,000-foot observation tower in downtown Jacksonville and state school grades out this week.
Our panel also discussed some of the biggest local stories of the year, including the Allied Veterans of the World case, world record scoreboards at EverBank Field, the George Zimmerman verdict, the city's pension challenges and the murder of Cherish Perrywinkle.
What are your top stories of 2013? Tell us on Facebook or tweet us @WJCTJax.
