#High school runner refuses to wear jersey with Robert E. Lee’s name

A star cross country runner said she will no longer wear a jersey bearing her high school’s name — Robert E. Lee — and is pushing for a renaming of the 62-year-old campus, according to reports.

Trude Lamb, 16, an incoming sophomore at the school who was adopted from Ghana back in 2014, wore the school’s jersey, emblazoned with “Tyler Lee,” throughout her freshman year — but has had enough, CNN reported.

Tyler stands for the Tyler Independent School District, of which the school is a member, and Lee stands for the school’s full name.

“It’s just a shorter version of Robert E. Lee,” she told the network. “It still reminds me of who he was.”

The school’s alma mater song explicitly glorifies Lee, a Confederate general who lived from 1807 to 1870 and owned slaves, Lamb said.

“Robert E. Lee we raise our voice in praise of your name,” it says. “May honor and glory e’er guide you to fame.”

“What has he done for him to be praised like that?” Lamb said.

In a recent letter to the school board and obtained by CNN, Lamb wrote that she can’t reconcile playing sports for a school named after Lee.

“I love and enjoy the sports I play at REL,” she wrote. “I can’t be playing sports, supporting, and going to a school that was named after a person who was against my people right here in the United States. He owned slaves and didn’t believe people like me were 100% human let alone ever go to my very high school.”

Community members pushed for the board to change the school’s name back in 2018, but when no one seconded the motion at the school board meeting, things didn’t go any further, according to local reports.

Lamb’s letter brought it to the forefront once again.

A petition calling for the renaming garnered more than 10,000 signatures, CNN reported.

Some have also called for another school in the district, John Tyler High School — named after the 10th US president who worked to create the Southern Confederacy — to be changed.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the district’s administration office Monday, and guests were allowed to voice their opinions at a meeting held inside.

“I feel like that’s a great way to try and bring awareness to it,” 2019 graduate Brandon Collins told KETK. “Robert E. Lee has a bunch of black athletes. We have a whole bunch of black people in theatre and band. It hurts as an African American to go to a school named after someone who fought to own our people.”

Lamb’s adopted mother, Laura Owens, told the station her daughter has received some social media backlash.

“Some of the comments have been ‘I bet she’s being put up to this. I bet she’s being paid,’ things like that,” she said. “A small percentage have been encouraging and affirming, especially some from her teachers from Robert E. Lee — they’re amazing.”