RICHMOND, Va. — The Richmond branch of the NAACP is proposing a name change for a highway that currently honors Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The organization will be joined in a news conference Monday afternoon by the Jefferson Davis Neighborhood Civic Association. The association sent a letter to City Councilwoman Reva Trammell on Saturday urging that the highway’s name be changed to a name that’s “more suitable to the culture we currently live in,” news outlets reported.
“The time is now to move forward,” Charles Willis, the association’s president, wrote. Other localities in Virginia have already changed the name: The road is called “Richmond Highway” in Fairfax and Arlington counties and in the city of Alexandria.
The joint news conference comes two days after a small group of demonstrators toppled a statue of Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in Richmond.
“It’s time for change,” Amy Wentz, who is running against Trammell in a council election, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “In order to attract the intentional growth and companies needed, let’s start with a new name that does not uphold a system of white supremacy and racism.”
Last week, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that a state-owned statue of former Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee would be removed as soon as possible from its perch on Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney also announced plans to seek the removal of the four other Confederate monuments along Monument Avenue, including statues of Davis and Confederate Gens. Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart.
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