CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Residents of Charlotte have decided on a new name for Jefferson Davis Street — it’s the first of nine streets set to be renamed in the coming months.
The street will be known as Druid Hills Way in a few weeks when a new sign is officially unveiled Sept. 25. The process of renaming the residential street began more than a year ago.
After the nationwide reckoning with racism this summer, Mayor Vi Lyles formed the Legacy Commission — comprised of community members and historians — to evaluate Confederate monuments and over 70 street names associated with “slavery, Confederate veterans, white supremacy or ‘romanticized notions of the antebellum South.’”
The commission found nearly every street named after a person in Charlotte before the late 1800s honors a slaveholding family. Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederacy in the 1860s. Schools, statues, plaques, streets and counties all over the South memorialize him. He had no ties to Charlotte, the commission found, but retreated to the city during the final days of the Civil War.
More than 1,700 monuments, public buildings and military bases across the country have ties to the Confederacy, the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates, and streets that invoke Confederate symbolism far outnumber those named after civil rights leaders, especially in the South — the country’s Blackest region.
Charlotte City Council unanimously voted in February to rename Jefferson Davis Street along with eight others.
Residents and property owners submitted names and then chose their top 3. Residents overwhelmingly chose Druid Hills Way as their top choice, taking 55% of the vote. The new name was announced Wednesday during a City Council meeting.
In March, a Charlotte Observer feature story examined the history of Jeff Davis Street and the Charlotteans who have lived there. Residents told of their upbringing on a close-knit street, where Black homeowners settled in the '50s and '60s, a time when racial discrimination shut Black families out from white schools, neighborhoods and other aspects of public life.
The community submitted recommendations for renaming Jeff Davis Street starting June 21 until July 18 and began voting on July 26. Voting ended Aug. 9.
During the process, the city sent out 116 letters to residents, engaged 101 people at an in-person event and posted 10 yard signs around the neighborhood.
Another street in Charlotte also will soon get a new name, officials announced Wednesday.
Phifer Avenue, which is located in uptown, will be renamed Montford Point Street, honoring the legacy of the first Black people that enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942, contributing to the World War II Allied victory. Charlotteans were among the recruits who trained there.
Phifer Avenue is expected to close when the nearby Hal Marshall site is redeveloped, which doesn’t have a set time frame yet.
William Phifer was one of Charlotte’s most prolific slaveowners.
Aycock Lane, Zebulon Avenue and Jackson Avenue community engagement for renaming began last week. The name suggestion survey is open now until Sept. 19 and voting will be conducted Sept. 27 through Oct. 11. The new names will be effective Nov. 29.
Stonewall Street, named for a Confederate general, will be the last street to bear a new name.
The timeline for the renaming of all nine streets will go through June 2022.
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