As it turns out, actress Julianne Moore and I attended the same high school, J.E.B. Stuart High, located in Falls Church, VA. The actress turned activist is now on a mission to help change the name of the school honoring Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart to Thurgood Marshall High School, after the first African American Supreme Court Justice and a civil rights leader.

Stuart High, as we call it, opened in 1959 amid heightened racial tension five years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision which ordered the desegregation of public schools. The choice of this name was viewed by many as an attack on that historic decision.

“We name our buildings, monuments, and parks after exalted and heroic individuals as a way to honor them, and inspire ourselves to do better and reach for more in our own lives,” Moore, 54, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “It is reprehensible to me that in this day and age a school should carry and celebrate the name of a person who fought for the enslavement of other human beings. I think the students of this school deserve better than that moniker.”

Moore has enlisted the voice of Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen, a former graduate of the school, and the duo have launched a Change.org petition to rename the school. As of this moment, the petition has garnered 28,736 signatures of the requested 35,000.

Julianne and Bruce say in their petition: “When we were at J.E.B. Stuart in the late ’70’s, the school symbol was Stuart riding a horse and waving the Confederate flag. The Confederate flag was at the center of our basketball court and on our athletic letter jackets and wasn’t removed until 2001…No one should have to apologize for the name of the public high school you attended and the history of racism it represents, as we and so many alumni of Stuart have felt the need to do our whole lives.”