Robert Smalls International Academy to scrap logo some found offensive
Robert Smalls International Academy will shelve a mascot logo some found offensive and historically inaccurate and will move forward with selecting another option.
Members of the Robert Smalls Association met last week with Beaufort County School District superintendent Jeff Moss and Robert Smalls school principal Nicole Holloman to discuss the association's objections to the logo, which was being considered to represent the school's mascot, the Generals.
Members of the association, which includes Robert Smalls School alumni, felt the logo with a half-black, half-white face and Revolutionary War-era hat was an affront to Smalls, an escaped slave who became a Civil War hero and five-term congressman.
Association president Linda Robinson said the meeting was productive and there is an agreement not to consider the logo moving forward. She was also assured the school's alma mater would not change, after hearing the school might have been writing a new song.
"At least we got rid of what was unfavorable, demeaning -- I think we're back on track," Robinson said.
A mat with the logo inside the school entrance has been removed. The logo remains on the school's website.
Members of the association will meet with the Robert Smalls School Improvement Council when school resumes, to produce three options for the next mascot. The options would then be forwarded to the Beaufort County Board of Education to approve one.
Robinson said she expects the nickname to remain the Generals, as it has always been.
Moss said last month the offending logo was one of the potential mascots considered by the school and is a stock image that comes up early in a Google search. He said he thinks the picture was chosen by the middle school students, and a bulldog was chosen by the elementary school-age students.
Both are included on the school's website.
Robert Smalls Middle School was renamed the Robert Smalls International Academy last year as the school transitioned to a prekindergarten through eighth-grade configuration. The school's logo had been a "G" for general.
Moss said it would be difficult to craft a mascot and logo that look like a real person, that the school needed a mascot that could appear at sporting events.
"It doesn't have to be a costume," Robinson said. "And if they want something, dress somebody up as a general."
Smalls' name added to Beaufort County Government Complex
New signs recognizing the Beaufort County Government Robert Smalls Complex will be unveiled on June 26.
The new name went into effect earlier this year, part of a movement by members of the Robert Smalls Association to recognize the man and the former site of Robert Smalls School. The all-black school taught students 40 years on the site of the current government complex.
The ceremony to present the new signs will begin at 10 a.m., according to a post on the association's Facebook page.
Follow reporter Stephen Fastenau at twitter.com/IPBG_Stephen.
This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Robert Smalls International Academy to scrap logo some found offensive."