A federal judge has sided with the Virginia NAACP in its lawsuit against a county school board’s reinstatement of Confederate military names to two schools, saying the decision discriminates against Black students. In an opinion filed Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael F. Urbanski said the school board in Shenandoah County violated Black students’ rights under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. The judge argued unlike a memorial with a Confederate figure's name, schools are places where children should have an “environment free of racial discrimination. In 2024, the school board reversed a 2020 decision to rename two schools. Board members moved to restore Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary.

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Ceuta residents gather for a counterprotest against a rally by a far-right nationalist and racist movement in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A large coalition led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and the family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will mark the anniversary of the historic March on Washington next month with a march for democracy. Sharpton’s National Action Network announced Tuesday plans for March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote on Aug. 28 on what will be 63 years since the 1963 march. The NAACP and the National Urban League are among multiple groups participating. The location and other details will be announced later. The original March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech, is considered one of the most consequential racial justice demonstrations in U.S. history.