WABE's Week In Review: Marjorie Taylor Greene testifies and students push to change school's Confederate name

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April 23rd, 2022

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene defended her place on the upcoming ballot in court this week. A group is challenging whether she can run for reelection of her north Georgia district, alleging she was involved in the January 6. insurrection.

Expert: Fewer masks, more infections

The country may soon see a rise in COVID-19 infections now that airlines have made masks optional, according to infectious disease expert and Emory University professor of medicine Dr. Carlos Del Rio. A federal judge in Florida nixed the mask mandate earlier this week. Del Rio spoke with WABE’s Jess Mador just after a federal judge put on hold the nation’s transportation mask requirement on domestic flights.

“Like living in a Confederate statue”

wheeler high school
Cobb County’s Wheeler High School was named after Confederate General Joseph Wheeler in 1965, the same year the school district integrated. (WABE)

Students at Wheeler High School in Cobb County are continuing to push officials to rename their school since the summer of 2020. The building was named for Confederate General Joseph Wheeler.

The school board formed a committee in August 2020 to consider a name change but reversed course a few months later. Still, as Martha Dalton reported, that hasn’t stopped students from pressing for change.

Memorializing victims of a horrific past

The entrance to the former site of the Chattahoochee Brick Company, located on the western edge of Atlanta at the confluence of Proctor Creek and the Chattahoochee River. (Bita Hornarvar/For WABE)

The city of Atlanta is taking steps to memorialize the victims of convict leasing. This was a practice of forcing people to work under brutal conditions, akin to slavery, but decades after the Civil War. As Molly Samuel reported, the city is buying a property in Northwest Atlanta with plans to build a park and a memorial. It is a place where thousands labored and many died.

Also in this episode

–Emily Wu Pearson looks at a program to help refugees keep their small businesses going.

–A theater southwest of Atlanta is getting a million-dollar cash infusion to bring it back from the dead.

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