Governor Jerry Brown rejected a bill Sunday that would ban naming schools, parks and other public property after Confederate leaders.
The bill came out of a national debate over the Confederate Flag after a man fatally shot nine black churchgoers during a Bible study in South Carolina last summer.
Two schools in Southern California are currently named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. California also has a Jefferson Davis Highway, named to commemorate the president of the Confederacy.
California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez has been working since June to have San Diego’s Robert E. Lee Elementary’s name changed.
The San Diego Black Police Officers Assocation has also been campaigning to get the school's name changed to Archie Buggs Elementray - after a Vietnam veteran and police officer, killed in action in 1978.
The school was named in the 1950s to honor Lee's record as an "American soldier and educator."
If the law had passed those places would have needed to choose new names by 2017.
