City of Alexandria officials are proposing new names for streets currently named after people who were affiliated with the Confederacy.
There are 41 streets in the City of Alexandria with problematic names, and the city will be working on changing a few each year until the process is complete. Many are in the West End of Alexandria, which was annexed in the 1950s around the same time Alexandria passed an ordinance stating that “streets running in a generally north-south direction shall, insofar as possible, bear the names of Confederate military leaders.”
The Inventory of Confederate Street Names notes which streets should be renamed and why.
The proposed changes are as follows:
North Breckinridge Place, North Frost Street and North and South Early Street could be renamed for:
- Benjamin Banneker, an African-American mathematician and astronomer;
- Sarah Gray, an educator in Alexandria in the late 1800s;
- Harriet Jacobs, an abolitionist and writer;
- Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who worked for President George Washington.
North and South Jordan Street and Jordan Court could be renamed after the Hughes family. The Hughes family lived in Foxchase while enslaved in the 1860s and two family members served in the U.S. Colored Infantry.
Forrest Street could go through a simple spelling change to Forest Street.
Changing street names could be expensive for the city, not just for street signs, but printed maps, digital media, the city’s 911 dispatch system and more. The city’s budget office reported last year that renaming all 41 streets could cost more than $800,000. The city has decided to divide up the initiative and cost over multiple years.
If these names are accepted by City Council (following a public hearing scheduled for Nov. 30), the name change process would start in December.
