In 1953, the City of Alexandria in Virginia adopted an ordinance that said streets running in North-South directions had to be named for Confederate military leaders. But now, some of the street names that resulted from that ordinance will be changed.
“We named streets and other contexts, we named parks,” said city council woman Sarah Bagley, who serves on the Naming Committee. “And so I took up what I saw as the mayor’s charge to us that we should be leading this effort with public feedback.”
The name change proposal came about last year from Mayor Justin Wilson. There are at least 41 streets in Alexandria that are associated with Confederate military members.
During a meeting on Jan. 9, the City Council finalized a plan to rename or rededicate four of those streets.
The Naming Committee, composed of Bagley, Councilman John Taylor Chapman and Councilwoman Alyia Gaskins, worked with the Historic Alexandria Resources Commission to generate a list of individuals and locations worthy of honor by the City.
The ordinance, which was officially adopted on Jan. 20, will rename North Breckinridge Place after the founder of Alexandria’s first school for free Black children, Harriet Jacobs.
Forrest Street will become Forest Street and North and South Jordan Streets and Jordan Court will be rededicated in honor of Thomasina E. Jordan, an Alexandria resident who became the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Electoral College.
North and South Early Streets will each get an extra “e” in the name for the U.S. Army’s highest-ranking Black woman officer during World War II Lt. Col. Charity Earley.
Prior to the vote, city residents were given the opportunity to provide public testimony on the ordinance.
“We need to realize and recognize that our city made a failure in naming the streets as such, but by rededication allows us to close those wounds,” said one man named John who lives just off North Jordan Street.
Susan Cole lives on North Early Street, she said she’s concerned about the issues that could arise from changing street names.
“Personally, I have a ninety-year-old mother and a husband at home and I work full time. I am the caretaker to both of them,” Cole said. “And I can’t even fathom trying to do a name change for all the documents for my mother and for myself.”
But others, such as Fran Vogel who’s also a resident of North Early Street, found themselves in the middle.
“We still bear the burden of effort, time and costs of change of address — which is considerable,” Vogel said. “That said, renaming Early with the spelling E-A-R-L-E-Y preserves the sense of place, eradicates the association with the Confederacy giving new meaning that is unrelated to Civil War history and results in a change all can embrace.”
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