RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A panel on the Richmond City Council has recommended the city gets more input from residents before voting to rename a highway that honors Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Members of the city council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation Standing Committee recommended Tuesday to delay the vote on the Jefferson Davis Highway until September, news outlets reported. It had originally been scheduled for next week.
“I know that will delay this process some, but I do agree that giving the public an opportunity to weigh in on this is important,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch quotes Richmond Councilwoman Ellen Robertson, who chairs the panel, as saying.
The delay comes amid a push by the Richmond branch of the NAACP and the Neighborhood Civic Association to get the name changed. The association had sent a letter to City Councilwoman Reva Trammell last month urging that the road be renamed to something that’s “more suitable to the culture we currently live in.”
The road is called “Richmond Highway” in Fairfax and Arlington counties and in the city of Alexandria. Trammell proposed that name for the road, which is also called U.S. Route 1, last month.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy conceived the name for the Davis highway in 1913, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. A statue of the Confederate leader has been toppled in Richmond during the recent protests against racism and police brutality.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.