The Dixie School District board voted Tuesday night to change the name of the 150-year-old district after critics linked it to the Confederacy and slavery. Those who support changing the name say the district was named Dixie by James Miller, the school founder, on a dare by Confederate sympathizers. Those who oppose the change say the school system was named for Mary Dixie, a Miwok Indian woman that Miller knew in the 1840s. You know Dixie is a racist name, so change it, said Bali Simon, a fifth-grader at Dixie Elementary School. Some of the proposed names that were previously rejected by the board included Marie Dixie Elementary School District and Skywalker Elementary School District.

Source: ABC News April 17, 2019 04:52 UTC