Alachua County to discuss renaming elementary school with Confederate roots

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – An elementary school in Gainesville could soon be rebranded amid a renewed swell of support to purge the names of Confederate Civil War figures from public school buildings.

J.J. Finley Elementary School was named after Jesse Johnson Finley, who was a U.S. Congressman, a circuit judge and a brigadier general of the Confederate Army.

The Alachua County School Board is scheduled to discuss changing the school’s name during its June 16 meeting, during which the public is invited to give input.

Alachua County Public Schools is also home to the Sidney Lanier Center, an institution named after a Georgia-born poet and musician who also served in the Confederate Army as a private. A well-known bridge in Glynn County in Southeast Georgia also bears Lanier’s name.