Description
South Garland High opened as an all-white high school in 1964. Almost 100 years after the end of the Civil War, the school’s community chose symbols and traditions tied to the Confederacy to represent the campus. It included a rebel flag, "Dixie" as the fight song, and a Civil War colonel as the mascot.
One of South Garland’s first fundraisers was a slave auction where members of the drill team sold their services for a day, GISD officials have said. The high school’s newspaper was published for the first time in 1964 as the Plantation News.
In 1991 a black activist named Melvin "A'Vant" Thomas picketed the school since it had a flag resembling the battle flag of the Confederate States of America; for a period of almost two years he had written numerous letters to the GISD school board asking them to remove the mural.
Until the early 1990s, a Confederate flag was the predominant image in the school shield. A group of students voted against changing the school flag in August 1988 with African American resident M.T. A'Vant (formerly Melvin Thomas), protested. A'Vant ended his protests in April 1991.
A group of South Garland High School parents developed a multiracial committee that same year to discuss the symbols and traditions they considered offensive that continued to be used by the school, including its fight song. The group met about 12 times before making a proposal to the school board in the summer of 1991. The group reached a compromise with the board members on only two items.
The Garland independent school Board voted 6 to 1 at its August 1, 1991, meeting, to discontinue use of the altered Confederate flag as the school flag and to also change the color of the mascot's uniform from gray to blue and red. The sole dissenting vote was cast by Randy Clark, who maintained that he was voting as his constituents had advised him. The president of the local chapter of the NAACP said the issue would not be over unless all symbolism referring to the Confederacy, including the fight song and a plantation mural, were removed.
At the start of the 1991–92 school year, a contest was held to replace the flag. The crossed sword design was chosen by the student body to replace the rebel flag.
The sign outside South Garland High School was later changed to reflect the changes in the school flag and mascot.
In 2015 the GISD school board agreed to remove symbolism reminiscent of the Confederacy.
In July 2020, the NAACP requested Garland Independent School District rebrand the school, including the mascot. The request included changes be completed by August 2021.
“We were trying to get them to close the loop on an issue that should have been addressed years ago,” said Ricky McNeal, president of Garland’s NAACP chapter. “Like any wound, it is going to take time to heal. But it says a lot about the way they go about it — they can do it reluctantly or can do it cooperatively.”
In 2020, the Garland ISD Board of Trustees unanimously voted to retire the Colonel mascot in favor of a new one following the approval of a $1.6 million rebrand.
THIS USED TO BE ON THE SCHOOLS WEBSITE
“To be called a colonel was the greatest honor one could receive,” the website states. “A Colonel embodies the attributes of leadership, courage, pride, and dignity. South Garland is proud of its heritage and as the traditional saying goes, ‘It’s great to be a Colonel!’”