JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A group of sociology students from Florida Community College-Jacksonville wants to change a piece of history.

The students said they are prepared to present a proposal to rename a high school currently named for a founder of the Ku-Klux Klan.

Nathan B. Forrest High School is located on the Westside just off 103rd Street near Interstate 295. For nearly 50 years, the school's name has remained the same, despite previous proposals for change.

Forrest was a Confederate general in the Civil War and the first grand wizard of the KKK.

The FCCJ college students said some things have changed significantly since the 1950s when the school was named, citing as the main change the racial makeup of the school, which is now predominately African-American.

"Why honor someone who founded the Ku Klux Klan?" said FCCJ professor Steven Stoll.

He said his students were stunned when they learned a Jacksonville high school was named after Forrest and that they plan to take action in front of the school board.

"There wouldn't be an Adolf Hitler High School in Brooklyn. That's really what we're talking about. We're talking about somebody who was very, very racist," Stoll said.

School board member and former Mayor Tommy Hazouri said the school's name was a community issue.

He said the controversy has come up from time to time in the past, but nothing has come of it. If the community were to come out in full force, the school board would listen, Hazouri said.

"If I were doing it today, and I were out there, I wouldn't like to have the school named after him. It's a tradition now. It's been built since 1958. A lot of people probably don't even know there's a background, anymore, with the Confederate soldier. I think more importantly is it's become a tradition," said Hazouri.

Some students who attend the high school said they thought the school's name was a big deal, while others said it did not bother them.

"We read a book about it. He was KKK people. It's kind of racism to me, N.B. Forrest -- that's like a rebel thing," said one high school student.

"It doesn't bother anyone. It's the name of the school that's been here for years, and nobody has really talked about it," said another Forrest student.

The FCCJ students are expected to present their proposal to the school board within a couple of weeks.

Channel 4's Adam Landau reported changing the school's name would be a long process, but that in the end the school board could vote on it.

The college students said they would like the high school to be renamed after Eartha White, a longtime Jacksonville philanthropist.