City Council and street names
Jeremy M. Lazarus | 2/15/2019, 6 a.m.
One Richmond group is calling on City Council to change the names of streets and bridges that are named for slaveholders and those who fought to keep African-Americans enslaved.
Phil Wilayto and Joseph S.H. Rogers of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality, said City Council and the city government have become too focused on Confederate statues and are now paralyzed by a state law that bars them from removing them.
Instead, the council needs to focus on what it currently has the power to do, Mr. Rogers said in remarks Monday night before City Council. That includes changing the name of the Robert E. Lee Bridge; renaming the portion of U.S. 1 in the city known as Jefferson Davis Highway; and adopting new names for such Confederate-honoring streets as Stuart Circle, Maury Street and Cowardin, Davis, Semmes, Stonewall and Confederate avenues.
That would show the council is prepared to take action where it can, Mr. Rogers said.
At the very least, he said, the council could order the lights turned off that nightly illuminate the Monument Avenue statues of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.
