Federal judge rules in favor of Shenandoah County students over Confederate school names

WMRA | By Bridget Manley

Published August 7, 2026 at 6:01 AM EDT

Plaintiffs and their legal team outside the U.S. Western District of Virginia courthouse last year, following the motion to dismiss hearing. Pictured left to right in front: Reverend Cozy Bailey, President of the Virginia chapter of the NAACP, and Shenandoah County students Briana Brown and A.D. Carter, V. Pictured left to right in the middle row: Ryan Downer and attorneys Li Reed and Marja Plater. (The rest of the legal team is behind)

In a long-awaited decision, a federal judge ruled Thursday in favor of the students who, along with the NAACP, sued Shenandoah County’s school board over its renaming of schools after Confederates. WMRA’s Bridget Manley reports.

Bridget Manley

Bridget Manley earned a degree in Mass Communications from Frostburg State University and has spent much of her adult life working as a morning show producer and journalist for radio stations in Cumberland, Maryland, and Annapolis, Maryland, before relocating to Harrisonburg. She is one of the publishers of The Harrisonburg Citizen, serves as the operations manager at Rivercrest Farm and Event Center in Shenandoah, and has produced stories for Virginia Public Media. She sits on the boards of Adagio House, Any Given Child Shenandoah, and the ACT ONE Theater Company.

See stories by Bridget Manley