School named after Confederate general renamed to Barack Obama elementary

An elementary school in Richmond, Virginia, will switch its name from a Confederate general to none other than the nation's first black president, Barack Obama.

In a move which can only be described as 'about time', the Richmond school board voted to rename J.E.B Stuart Elementary as Barack Obama Elementary School, according to CNN affiliate WTVR.

The school's community was said to have submitted ideas for the new name, and the students at the Richmond school - which is 95 per cent African-American - voted among seven name choices.

Out of the seven, the top three finalists were Barack Obama, Northside and Wishtree.

This isn't the first school to choose Obama as a suitable alternative to being named after Confederate generals.

Last year, a school board in Mississippi dropped the name Jefferson Davis, who was the president of racism, otherwise known as president of the Confederate States, in favour of former president Obama.

A trend is sweeping the nation of America; people are perpetuating a debate surrounding what to do with Confederate names, statues and symbols that litter the United States.

This movement arguably gained traction after Dylann Roof killed nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church in 2015.

And more recently after white nationalists marched during the summer to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia.

J.E.B Stuart was a Confederate general during the American Civil War.

During a campaign undertaken by Union Major General Philip Sheridan, Stuart was mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern on May 11 1864.

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