Jeff Davis Highway In Arlington Is No More

[appalachiablue]

Jeff Davis Highway In Arlington Is No More. Route 1 will no longer be named after the president of the Confederacy. May 16, 2019.

ARLINGTON, VA -- It's official: the Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board has unanimously approved changing the name of Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington County.

From here on out, Route 1 and 110 will be named Richmond Highway, removing the honor from the president of the Confederacy.

"Good news," tweeted Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. "Glad to see unanimous support for this change from the Commonwealth Transportation Board."

The change is part of a broader national movement to take down statues and memorials honoring Confederate leaders and generals.

Proponents of the move argue that those who fought to preserve the institution of slavery during the Civil War should not be honored, while critics claim that taking down such memorials amount to erasing history.

The move follows an identical one by Alexandria last year. The city council voted unanimously to rename their stretch of Route 1 to Richmond Highway.. https://patch.com/virginia/arlington-va/jeff-davis-highway-arlington-no-more

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. All right! I've always just called it Rt. 1.

[appalachiablue]

2. Same here, always used Rt. 1. Past time JD was dropped.

[Recursion]

12. Soon it will be "Amazon HQ2 Access Road"

But, yeah: glad we got the name changed in time for that build-out.

[atreides1]

3. It doesn't "erase history"!!!

Jefferson Davis and the role he played in the American Civil War can be found in history books!

What has been erased is an honor bestowed on a man who betrayed his country...an honor he did not deserve!

[EarnestPutz]

4. It does erase history, after a fashion. It erases the history of a racist, unreconsructed....

....state government, and citizenry, who wanted to keep "the cause" alive and push it in the face of black people every time they drove down a state highway. The expression "on the ash heap of history" comes to mind when one considers these smug politicians and their ill-disguised bigotry.

[EarnestPutz]

8. When you get into Falls Church Virginia, the Lee Highway turns into Washington Street, and the...

...Leesburg Pike turns into Broad Street. I lived there fifty years ago and do not remember this. I lived close to the intersection of the two roads and remember using "Lee and Leesburg" as a landmark to describe where I lived. Did Falls Church adopt the other names at some later date?

[Midnightwalk]

5. Preserve history?

How about “racist road” and “traitor turnpike”?

Otherwise keep it in the history books.

[Bradshaw3]

6. Even southerners didn't like him

He was reviled in the South, too, after the Civil War. I would guess the highway was named as part of the "Lost Cause" revival when his failings were forgotten in the attempt to glorify Confederate officials.

[appalachiablue]

7. Traitor & loser in every way. Lived off a wealthy woman at the end.

"Lost Cause" for sure.

Wiki. In 1913, the United Daughters of the Confederacy conceived the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, a transcontinental highway to be built through the South. Portions of the highway's route in Virginia, Alabama and other states still bear the name of Jefferson Davis. However, in Alexandria, Virginia, the city council voted unanimously to rename the highway and has solicited public suggestions for a new name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Did JD *ever* live in VA, before he was imprisoned there ?

Not exactly a "native son", so why did he get a highway named after him ?

"Erasing history", my ass !

[appalachiablue]

10. According to this wiki bio, JD only lived in Va. as Pres.

of the Confederacy in Richmond, then as a prisoner at Fort Monroe.

The UDC, United Daughters of the Confed. cooked up this Route 1 Highway project in 1913.

He moved around, when young was in KY, MS, LS; post- war overseas travel to Cuba and Britain from what I read here.

Wiki, "In 1913, the United Daughters of the Confederacy conceived the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, a transcontinental highway to be built through the South. Portions of the highway's route in Virginia, Alabama and other states still bear the name of Jefferson Davis. However, in Alexandria, Virginia, the city council voted unanimously to rename the highway and has solicited public suggestions for a new name." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Thanks, I thought I remembered the Capital moving around more than that --

I thought a couple of cities in AL had been Capital temporarily, but evidently not. :headscratch: And Richmond didn't even pop into my mind.

[Recursion]

13. Only as President of the CSA. He was from outside Biloxi, MS (nt)