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Nashville renames part of Charlotte Avenue to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

Yesterday, the Nashville Metro Council took final action to rename a portion of one of its major downtown street's after the icon civic rights leader.

 

The council voted unanimously on a final of three readings to rename the part of Charlotte Avenue that stretches from Third Avenue and Interstate 40 near George L. Davis Boulevard to “Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Blvd." The rest of Charlotte Avenue will remain unchanged.

It marks the city's first street named in honor of King, ending what supporters say was a shameful legacy of being one of only a few major cities in not just the South, but nationwide, to not have a street named after King.

At-large Councilwoman Sharon Hurt, who lead the effort, read aloud a letter from Ainka Sanders Jackson, executive director of the The Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth & Reconciliation, that was sent to the Metro Council. Sanders Jackson is a graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville.

 

"The passage of this bill helps to make the link between the past and present and fuel our collective commitment to advocate for equitable policies that best reflect the policies of Dr. King's legacy," the letter reads.

Hurt thanked her council colleagues for supporting "this historic and hallmark legislation."

 

Prior to the vote, Kwame Lillard, a longtime Nashville civil rights leader, held a sign outside the Metro courthouse that read, "Nashville's shame: No street with MLK's name." Lillard said he made the sign many years ago.

To make the name-change official, Mayor David Briley is holding a ceremonial bill signing 10 a.m. Wednesday outside the Metro courthouse near the city's civil rights art Witness Walls. The event will come 50 years after King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

 

The change won't take effect until Nov. 7.

 

The delay is because the stretch of Charlotte Avenue that would be affected includes multiple state-owned buildings, including the Tennessee State Capitol. Supporters wanted to wait until the election of a new Tennessee governor so outgoing Gov. Bill Haslam wouldn't have to change letterhead.

 

Renaming the stretch of Charlotte Avenue is the second downtown street renaming in the last year after the council voted last May to rename Capitol Boulevard after Dallas Dudley Boulevard, a Tennessee women suffragist who was key to women gaining the right to vote.

 

Separately, the council Tuesday approved a resolution to commemorate the 50th anniversary of King's assassination.

-The Tennessean

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