SPLC: “Gertrude “Trude” Lamb is a star athlete on her track team at Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler, Texas.
A native of Ghana who came to the U.S. seven years ago, the 16-year-old didn’t know much about the Civil War – or about the Confederate general for whom her school was named. But she was familiar with the dungeons that once held enslaved people along the shores of her home country.
Last summer, after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis sparked renewed efforts to remove Confederate monuments and other symbols from public spaces, she learned more. And she took a stand, joining other students in demanding that the school be renamed.
Lamb, whose story is featured in the latest issue of the SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance magazine, wrote a letter to the school board saying she would no longer wear a school jersey that bore the name of an enslaver. Teaching Tolerance magazine is a publication of the SPLC’s Learning for Justice program.
“I love and enjoy the sports I play at Robert E. Lee,” she wrote. “I cannot bear and will no longer wear Lee’s name on my race jersey. … As one of your students I am respectfully asking you to take up the Robert E. Lee name change issue.”
Her letter went viral and caught the attention of national media. On an Instagram account called “wewontwearthename,” other athletes from the school posted pictures of themselves wearing jerseys with the name Lee blacked out.
In August, the students won their campaign and the school was renamed Tyler Legacy High School.
Their success is being repeated across the country. “