Alexandria Proposes Replacing Confederate Street Names

Alexandria, Virginia, is renaming streets to honor the contributions of prominent African American figures in the city’s history and removing the names of Confederate figures.

Among them, Forrest Street, now named for Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. {snip}

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Another street up for change: Early Street, named for Confederate Maj. Gen. Jubal Early, who led the attack on D.C.’s Fort Stevens during the Civil War. Its proposed new name: Harriett Jacobs Street after the abolitionist and author of the book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.”

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“It’s gonna force me to go ahead and change my return address labels, and I’ll pass those costs on to the city,” one resident said.

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He lives on Jordan Court, which, like Jordan Street, is named after a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. They would become Hughes Street and Hughes Court, named after an enslaved family {snip}

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Residents will get a chance to weigh in on the name changes and even propose some of their own at a public meeting at city hall Nov. 30.