New Confederate Road Renaming Process Presented By Alexandria Mayor

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Renamings of Alexandria streets named for Confederate figures would be streamlined in a new process proposed by Mayor Justin Wilson.

The mayor provided a memo to City Council Tuesday on the renaming process, as first reported by the Washington Post. The renaming process calls for planning for three renamings a year with funding in the city manager's annual budget proposal. According to the Post, Alexandria has 41 streets associated with the Confederacy.

In remarks to City Council Tuesday, the mayor noted Confederate names in Alexandria were a "permanent protest" against the civil rights movement and growing power of African Americans in the city.

"Those streets have no place, those honors have no place in 2023," said Wilson.

Wilson described the current renaming process that allows for petitions to be submitted for renamings as "cumbersome." That petition process involves signatures from 25 percent of a street's property owners for city government to consider a street renaming.

"I think there is a desire to be a little bit more intentional and deliberate about how we undertake those efforts," Wilson said.

Wilson said the new process would involve the Alexandria Historic Resources Commission working with the Office of Historic Alexandria to develop recommendations for people, events and places that should be honored with street names. There would be a particular focus on women and minorities who Wilson said "have been ignored in our history."

The mayor also noted there were some good street names that had replaced by Confederate names and should be reviewed in the new process.

When the list of names is ready, City Council's naming committee would work with city departments to prioritize streets for renaming — three at a time each year.

Other City Council members expressed support for the mayor's renaming process.

"We get to kind of take little chunks and bite it off and work through it, not just us up here on council, not just city staff, but the community as well," said Councilmember John Taylor Chapman. "So being able to continue to talk about this work through issues at the individual or street level, do some education at that level and the community level as well are all opportunities."

Councilmember Kirk McPike said he was surprised to learn his home was on a Confederate-associated name.

"As someone who bought a home in Alexandria just a few years ago on the West end, it was very startling how many houses we looked at that were on streets with names that I would have a hard time justifying living on," said McPike. "We thought we'd actually dodged that, but as it turns out, our current street is named after a Confederate naval vessel. So this is a problem that exists across the city."

Councilmember Sarah Bagley noted the city already has a blueprint for street renamings from renaming Jefferson Davis Highway as Richmond Highway.

"We learned things through that process, what what supports businesses need, what supports private residences need," said Bagley.

Councilmember Canek Aguirre agreed that the city should be "deliberate and intentional" about the street renamings, since the efforts to put Confederate names in place were deliberate and intentional.

Councilmember Alyia Gaskins, who is part of City Council's naming committee with Chapman and Bagley, said the public is encouraged to reach out to the committee members with feedback.