Could renaming streets in Northern Virginia promote racial healing? [View all]
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
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