City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: MAY 16, 2023
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
THROUGH: JAMES F. PARAJON, CITY MANAGER /s/
FROM: DANA WEDELES, STRATEGIC INITIATIVES OFFICER
DOCKET TITLE:
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Receipt of the Scope of Work for Renaming Confederate Streets.
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ISSUE: Receipt of the Scope of Work for Re-naming Confederate Streets.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council receive the process that the City Council Naming Committee intends to follow for re-naming streets named for Confederate Soldiers.
BACKGROUND: On January 10, 2023, Mayor Justin Wilson introduced a proposal to rename streets in the City that are named for Confederate soldiers. He stated, "Our predecessors used street naming policies as a form of permanent protest against the burgeoning civil rights movement and growing political power for African-Americans. As a symbol, these honors persist today, honoring virulent racists, many of whom took up arms against our nation. These honors are not defensible and should be removed....While it is important to remove these inappropriate honors, it is also important to consider the practical concerns as thousands of Alexandria residents and visitors use these existing street names to navigate our community. As such, I believe a reasonable, yet deliberate pace of renaming these streets over time should be embarked upon."
Many of these streets were named in 1953 through an ordinance (Attachment 1) that specifically stated that "streets running in a generally north-south direction shall, insofar as possible, bear the names of Confederate military leaders." This ordinance was approved one year following the annexation of Alexandria's West End (west of Quaker Lane) where many streets in the City had not yet been developed nor been named. This ordinance also came to be in anticipation of the landmark Supreme Justice Court Case of Brown ...
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