Posted on February 27, 2023

Confederate Street Names in Clayton County Are Here to Stay

Bobeth Yates, 11 Alive, February 21, 2023

A proposal to part ways with Georgia’s Confederate past was shot down during a Clayton County Board of Commissioners meeting.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the measure to change more than a dozen streets with names with ties to Confederate Army generals was brought up for its last hurdle — but it never even made it to a vote.

Clayton County Commissioner DeMont Davis sponsored the resolution and was confident it would pass. It died when it was introduced and no one seconded or backed the motion for a vote.

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“We stay on a big plantation. if you look at it, you see when you come in it’s only one way in and one way out and all of the names of the street are plantation names,” said Clayton County resident Mardel Heckstall.

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“The whole street is named after slave masters, plantations, and all that above but the majority people who stay on it are Black or Hispanic, {snip}” added Heckstall.

Davis, the commissioner behind the legislation, said home values could be hurting because of the street names.

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But not all residents wanted to switch their street names.

“It’s our history. That’s the flag he was fighting for,” said neighbor Geraldine Pattillo.

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