Move Afoot to Rename Jefferson Davis Highway

By MARY ANN BARTON (Patch Staff)

There is a move afoot to change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway.

Two petitions on change.org are calling on Virginia lawmakers to remove the name of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis.

One, started by Vienna lawyer Daniel Zim, is titled: ”Stop Memorializing a Slave Owner and White Supremacist: Rename Jefferson Davis Highway”

The petition has more than 3,200 supporters as of Saturday evening. Another petition is asking for the same change. It has 80 supporters so far.

Debate over Confederate symbols rose in the weeks after Dylann Roof allegedly opened fire on a traditionally black Charleston church, killing nine, on June 17.

Roof was associated with hate groups and had posted pictures of himself with white supremacist symbols, including the Confederate flag.

Thousands are now calling for Virginia to remove Davis’ name from the highway. Davis served as president of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

The highway also goes by other names; south of Alexandria, it’s called Richmond Highway. Heading north, its name changes to Henry Street and Patrick Street in Old Town Alexandria. It switches to the name Jefferson Davis Highway between First and Vernon streets near Del Ray. It continues with that name up to Crystal City.

The roadway is known as either Route 1 or Jefferson Davis Highway plus a lot of other names from the Potomac River down to the North Carolina border.

The Washington Post reports Virginia’s legislature voted to rename highways in Davis’ honor in 1922 at the behest of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Advocates wanted a Southern equivalent to the coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway, according to the Federal Highway Administration, the Associated Press reports.

PHOTO: A road sign in Fredericksburg shows the Jefferson Davis Highway name; from Google maps.