A federal judge on Tuesday ruled against a school district in Virginia for reinstating a Confederate school name, saying the move violated the constitutional rights of black students.

U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski ruled that Stonewall Jackson High School students in Shenandoah County, Virginia, cannot be forced to bear Jackson’s name and its pro-slavery associations.

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“Plaintiffs believe that when they are identified as ‘Stonewall Jackson Generals’ and wear ‘Generals’ team uniforms as they dedicate their hard work and athletic, academic, and musical talents to performances and competition victories attributable to ‘Stonewall Jackson High School,’ plaintiffs themselves become instruments for communicating the school board’s message,” Urbanski wrote.

“When plaintiffs’ bodies, hard work, talents, and achievements are intertwined with the name ‘Stonewall Jackson,’ plaintiffs are enlisted in conferring honor on that name, and because that name conveys a message well-understood by viewers in plaintiffs’ community, plaintiffs are enlisted in conferring honor on that message by extension,” he continued.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit from the NAACP Virginia State Conference and five individual students who challenged the school board’s choice to restore the names of Confederate officers to two of its public schools: Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School, the latter of which was named after the Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.

The complaint said the name changes created “an unlawful and discriminatory educational environment for Black students” and accused the school board of violating the First and 14th amendments of the Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Equal Education Opportunities Act.

The judge did not order the school board to change the name, only ruling on the First Amendment claims related to the high school’s name. The other claims in the lawsuit will be at the center of a trial later this year.

In 2020, the school board, like many across the country in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, voted to retire the Confederate names of Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary.

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In 2024, the school board made national headlines after it controversially voted 5-1 in favor of restoring the Confederate names. The community was vocally opposed at the time.

“The record indicates that the highly symbolic name ‘Stonewall Jackson’ was selected to convey a message or messages, such as a message signaling that the 2020 School Board’s efforts to condemn racism were counterproductive,” Urbanski wrote.