Confederate Avenue renamed in Virginia amid racial reckoning

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The city council in Richmond, Virginia, has renamed a stretch of four residential blocks that had been known as Confederate Avenue.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Monday that the street’s name is now Laburnum Park Boulevard.

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The renaming is part of a much larger and ongoing reckoning over the city’s historical ties to slavery and racial discrimination. The capital city took down nearly all of its Confederate monuments this summer in the wake of protests against racial injustice.

“We realize this won’t be earth-shattering or change systemic racism, but all of us can do something to create a more welcoming and inclusive community,” said Gwen Corley Creighton, a resident who worked with her neighbors to petition the city for the change. “This was one small thing we felt that we could do.”

Surveys conducted by the community over the summer found 75% of the street’s 60 households supported the change, the newspaper reported. This year’s protests across the country over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody in May, might have been a tipping point for some who had been hesitant to back the request, Creighton said.

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Laburnum Park Boulevard is in a historic district with the same name.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine lives on Laburnum Park Boulevard with his wife, Anne Holton. They also supported the change, the newspaper reported.