From the introduction to the chapter by Lia Epperson, former Director of Education at the NAACP LDF:

"After decades of federal court supervision, one might assume that schools in places like Gadsden would have moved further toward achieving racial equality. In 2004, however, many Gadsden children still attend a middle school named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the uneducated, slave-owning, first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. When my colleagues and I argued that such a name might alienate African American students, school officials resisted in a vociferous manner similar to the self-righteous resistance exhibited in most southern districts in the wake of Brown.

Our nation's history of slavery and apartheid is still reflected in symbols like a high school using a rebel gun-toting soldier as a mascot, as well as in the disparities evident in the largely segregated schools. On one of my first visits to the predominantly African American public high school in Gadsden, I saw broken desks and leaking roofs. Bathrooms lacked sufficient toilet paper and soap. The chemistry lab lacked running water and the equipment necessary to carry out the experiments listed in lesson plans. Students had fewer opportunities to take the upper level and specialized classes that were available at other schools and that make students more attractive candidates to colleges and universities."