The Jefferson Davis Highway in Virginia, at least where the busy thoroughfare runs through the D.C. suburb of Alexandria, will have a new name starting in 2019. Distancing itself from the Confederacy’s first and only president will cost the city itself $27,000 to replace 19 street signs.
The Alexandria City Council voted unanimously Saturday to rename the road Richmond Highway, concluding a debate that ran for three years, WJLA-TV reported.
"It speaks to who we are," Alexandria Mayor Allison Silberberg told WJLA-TV. "That we are a city of kindness and compassion, a city where we’re not just tolerant but embracing and accepting where diversity is a core value.”
Alexandria officials said they started looking at Confederate memorials and street names in 2015, conducting five public meetings and hearings and hundreds of in-person and written comments.
Davis was a U.S. senator from Mississippi and former secretary of war before he was tapped to become the first and only president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, according to History.com. He was eventually charged with treason, but never tried.
People on social media were mixed about the name change.
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