You’ve probably seen the headlines. Or maybe you just noticed the new signs while driving down Ann Street. Either way, the era of Robert E. Lee Montgomery AL landmarks looks a lot different than it did just a few years ago.
It’s a weird feeling for some. For others, it’s a long-overdue relief. Montgomery is the "Cradle of the Confederacy," but it’s also the "Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement." Those two identities have been fighting for space on the same street corners for over a century.
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Honestly, the shift didn't happen overnight. It took a massive cultural wave, a few viral moments, and a $50,000 fine paid to the state of Alabama to finally change the name of the city's most prominent school honoring the Confederate general.
The Statue That Fell in the Middle of the Night
On June 1, 2020, things got real.
Amidst the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, a group of people headed to the front of Robert E. Lee High School on Ann Street. They didn't just stand there with signs. They pulled the bronze statue of Lee right off its pedestal.
It was dramatic. Four people were eventually charged with felony criminal mischief for the act. But the statue never went back up.
The Montgomery Public Schools (MPS) board eventually decided the statue was "too damaged" to return. They got a legal opinion from the Alabama Attorney General that they didn't have to replace it. Eventually, the hunk of bronze was handed over to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
That empty pedestal sat there for a long time. It was a literal hole in the landscape that forced everyone in town to talk about what "heritage" actually means when 80% of the students walking past that pedestal are Black.
Why Robert E. Lee High School is Now Percy Julian
In late 2022, the school board finally pulled the trigger on a total rebrand. They didn't just take down a statue; they changed the identity of the school.
Robert E. Lee High School is now Dr. Percy L. Julian High School.
Who was Percy Julian? Basically, he was a genius. He was a Montgomery-born chemist who pioneered the synthesis of medical drugs from plants. He’s the reason we have affordable cortisone and birth control pills.
The $50,000 Price Tag for Change
Changing the name wasn't free. Alabama has this law called the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017. It says you can't rename "historically significant" buildings or monuments that are over 40 years old without state permission.
Montgomery didn't get permission. They did it anyway.
The state slapped them with a $25,000 fine for renaming Lee High and another $25,000 for renaming Jefferson Davis High (now JAG High). Superintendent Melvin Brown was pretty blunt about it. He basically said that paying the fine was a better use of money than continuing to force students to attend a school named after someone who fought to keep their ancestors enslaved.
The Real History of Lee in Montgomery
Here’s something most people get wrong: Robert E. Lee didn't actually have much to do with Montgomery during the war.
Sure, the Confederate government was formed here in February 1861. But Lee was still in the U.S. Army at that time. He was actually in Texas when the first six states seceded. He didn't resign his commission until April 1861, after Virginia joined the fray.
Most of the "Lee" branding in Montgomery didn't happen in the 1860s. It happened in the 1950s.
The Timing Wasn't an Accident
Robert E. Lee High School opened in 1955.
Think about that date. It was one year after the Brown v. Board of Education decision that ordered schools to desegregate. Historians, like those at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), point out that naming schools after Confederate leaders during this time was often a "massive resistance" tactic.
It was a way of marking territory.
When the school opened, it was all-white. It stayed that way for years. By the time it was renamed in 2022, the student body was almost entirely African American. That disconnect is what eventually made the name unsustainable.
What’s Left of the Legacy?
If you’re looking for Robert E. Lee in Montgomery today, you have to look a bit harder.
- The First White House of the Confederacy: You can still see where Jefferson Davis lived, and Lee is certainly part of the "Lost Cause" narrative preserved in museums.
- The Legacy Museum: This is the place to go if you want the "other side" of the story. Located on Coosa Street, it sits on the site of a former slave warehouse. It connects the dots between the Civil War era and modern issues.
- The Alabama State Capitol: There are still plenty of markers and portraits around the Capitol grounds, though the conversation about their future is constant.
Montgomery is a city of layers. You have the spot where Jefferson Davis was inaugurated just steps away from the church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached.
The Actionable Reality
If you are visiting or moving to the area, here is how to navigate the current landscape of Robert E. Lee Montgomery AL history:
- Update your GPS: If you're looking for the high school, search for "Percy Julian High School." Most old maps still show the Lee name, but the signage on the ground has changed.
- Visit the "Legacy Sites": To understand why the name change happened, spend a day at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It provides the context that a 1950s statue never could.
- Check the School Athletics: The mascot is no longer the "Generals" in the way it used to be. The school has embraced a new identity—the Phoenix—symbolizing rising from the ashes of the past.
The shift in Montgomery isn't about erasing history. It’s about deciding which parts of history get the "front porch" treatment and which parts belong in a museum. Lee is still in the history books, but he's no longer the face of Montgomery's public education.
To dig deeper into this transition, you can visit the Montgomery Public Schools website or explore the archives at the Alabama Department of Archives and History to see original 1955 documents regarding the school's founding.