Could renaming streets in Northern Virginia promote racial healing?

[struggle4progress]

By Patricia Sullivan
September 13 at 11:06 AM

Hume Avenue sits just off Alexandria’s Jefferson Davis Highway, behind the National Tire and Battery store. Like the highway, the three-block stretch of road with modest homes was named for a Confederate leader, although one not as well-known as the president of the Rebel states ...

The Alexandria City Council last week said it would appoint a citizen commission to recommend whether to rename streets that are linked to the Confederacy and whether to remove a statue of a grieving Confederate soldier on South Washington Street in Old Town. The council also voted to stop a longtime city practice of hoisting the Confederate flag from traffic-light poles near the statute on Confederate memorial days — joining a growing list of state and local governments that have reined in displays honoring the Confederacy ...

“I have mixed feelings,” said Maria Wasowski, who was gardening in her front yard on a recent morning. “People are used to the names of streets and don’t think of the associations [with Confederates]. Streets named for those who are major figures — that’s different.”

Her street was named for Frank Hume, a former Confederate soldier and self-described spy who served as a signal scout for Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. Wasowski said she did not consider it particularly offensive. But she would support renaming Jefferson Davis Highway and Beauregard Street in the West End, which honors Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard, who designed the Confederate battle flag ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/could-renaming-streets-promote-racial-healing/2015/09/13/8bd7001c-589b-11e5-8bb1-b488d231bba2_story.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Here are the streets in Alexandria that are named for Confederate heroes

September 13 at 11:04 AM

... Alexandria renamed many streets in 1953, after it annexed part of Fairfax County. The City Council at the time decided to name its north-south streets in the western portion of the city after military leaders from the Confederate States of America, a policy that was repealed in 2014.

Here are the 33 streets that city leaders say are documented as named for Confederates, although two of them are marked “possibly.” Another 30 streets also could be named for Confederate luminaries, but the source of the names is undocumented, the city says ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/here-are-the-streets-in-alexandria-that-are-named-for-confederate-heroes/2015/09/13/8697940e-58be-11e5-8bb1-b488d231bba2_story.html

[TeddyR]

2. Many of the names on that list

Are so vanilla or unknown that I would never connect them with a Confederate leader, including Calhoun, Frost, Early, French, Floyd, Jackson, Jordan, Reynolds and Wheeler. Maybe Jackson St. is named after Andrew Jackson or Michael Jackson? Jeff Davis Highway is pretty obvious, but unless we are going to rename every Jackson St. in the US then this seems silly. Maybe we should just name every street Lincoln Avenue?

[Frances]

5. Stonewall Jackson

I don't think there is a native born Southerner of my generation who doesn't know how Stonewall Jackson got his name

In battle, someone said, "There Jackson stands like a stone wall."

I recognize the names Calhoun, Early, and Wheeler from the Civil War era and it's been years since I studied history..

[lunatica]

3. Yes. And so would dozens of other changes

[DFW]

4. Not unless it was explained in a big way why

I grew up there. It was 40 years before I even knew that "Lee Highway" was named for Robert E. Lee. It was always just there, and was always called that.

I was 16 before I knew that "Jeb Stuart" high school (I didn't go there) was named for a Confederate General.

If you're going to rename those streets, with the ensuing confusion of people looking for streets they have driven on all their lives, TELL everyone WHY, or else, you're creating traffic havoc.

This is not the same thing as demanding that Washington National Airport be re-given its original name. Reagan hated Washington and hated the Air Traffic Controllers. The people who lived there and grew up there were furious at the Republicans for naming our airport after a hated president for no reason other than to immortalize a partisan idol and piss off the locals.

[phylny]

6. Then what to do about an entire town in NoVA, Leesburg? nt

[Ex Lurker]

7. Meaningless gesture that would only cause resentment at the confusion and inconvenience.

I can't believe we're wasting time with this. Flags on official buildings? Great, take them down. Going block by block looking for Confederate names, or other names that might offend somebody? I can't believe we're wasting time on this minutia. Any good idea can be taken to absurd levels, and this is one of them.

[struggle4progress]

8. It hasn't always been meaningless in Alexandria, where the law required new North-South roads

to be named for Confederates, until the city repealed the restriction in 2014. That law dated from the early civil rights era in the 1950s, when segregationists discovered cries of "our heritage!" could be a convenient dog-whistle.

[Ex Lurker]

9. I understand that, and it was wrong.

But at some point you have to start at where you are, and move forward. Making tens of thousands of individuals and businesses go through the hassle of changing their address is going to alienate a lot of people who would otherwise be supporters, or at least neutral.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. It's a big expense for businesses ...

... new business cards, stationery, invoices, web site changes, signage, yellow pages, etc.

All this, to purify history? Pretend it didn't happen?

Well, I suppose it IS a movement toward Political Correctness ...