A US elementary school has voted to change its name from that of a Confederate general to the first black US president, Barack Obama.
The board of J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School in Virginia voted 8-1 in favour of ditching the name of James Ewell Brown Stuart, who was a US army officer for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
The school said students, teachers and parents were all involved in the renaming process, and were thrilled to be honouring the 44th president.
"In the former capital of the Confederacy, we decided to stop honouring an individual who fought to preserve slavery and to begin honouring our first African-American president instead,” Superintendent Jason Kamras said.
The Richmond School Board has voted to change the name of the city's final confederate leader-named school from J.E.B. Stuart to Barack Obama Elementary. Source: AAP
“I'm thrilled that the students of J.E.B. Stuart – who recommended Barack Obama as one of their top choices for the new name – will now have the opportunity to attend a school that honours a leader who represents the great promise of America."
Nearly 95 per cent of the J.E.B Stuart school's student body is black, according to CBS News.
The decision follows numerous communities across the US debating whether to change Confederate names and symbols in public spaces.
Last year, Davis International Baccalaureate Elementary School - in Mississippi - also voted to rename itself after Barack Obama.
This move was prompted by a student who read Jefferson Davis' biography and wanted to change the school's name to reflect the nearly 98 per cent black students.
The change followed the Charlottesville monument protests in 2017 where violence erupted when the city announced it was removing the statue of Confederate General Robert Lee.
