Atlanta looks into renaming Confederate streets

In a report given to Reed late last week, the committee recommended:

*The immediate renaming of “Confederate Avenue, East Confederate Avenue, and any street named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, John B. Gordon, Robert E. Lee, Stephen Dill Lee, or Howell Cobb. The aforementioned were significant Confederate military leaders and actively involved in white supremacist activities after the war, making them undeserving of the honor of a street name in Atlanta.” The panel also recommended that:

  • The city remove the Peace Monuments in Piedmont Park and at Peachtree Battle near Peachtree Road because they represent, “Lost Cause mythology” and ignore the experience of enslaved African Americans. Both should be put in city storage.
  • The Confederate Obelisk and Lion of the Confederacy monuments in Oakland Cemetery remain, but more context be added to the monuments. It also recommends no flags of the Confederacy be flown on the grounds.
  • A longer-term committee be formed at the city level to review whether to rename the dozen or more streets across the city also named for those with ties to the Confederacy.

Sounds good so far. There are, of course, those opposed - the first article there includes an interview with a gentleman who enjoys going on regular jogs while carrying a Confederate flag; he is apparently under the impression that, if the Confederacy had won the war, slavery would still have been abolished and “states rights” would have been upheld.

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I wonder if the confederate jogger ever runs into Baton Bob? Probably not, since Bob tends to stick around mid town and this gentleman is down in Grant park…

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I’d never heard of this Baton Bob… I assume you mean this one?

From what’s on the Wikipedia article, it sounds like that could be an… interesting meeting.

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There is only one Baton Bob! He’s a city-wide treasure!

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