Name of street honouring Confederacy’s president will change

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Alexandria City Council has voted to change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway, which honours the president of the Confederacy.

The Washington Post reports (http://wapo.st/2ceURy1 ) city council voted unanimously Saturday for the change. The council also voted to seek permission from the Virginia General Assembly to move a 7-foot, bronze statue of a Confederate soldier from its place in Old Town to a museum.

The statue of a pensive Confederate soldier is owned by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Erected in 1889, it bears the names of local residents who died on behalf of the South during the Civil War.

The city council wants to move the statue to the city’s Lyceum history museum. It can’t be moved without approval by Virginia’s General Assembly.

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

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