LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood city commissioners in southeast Florida decided last night to begin a process to change the names of streets that honor Confederate generals, local media reported today.
In this way, Hollywood, 21 miles north of Miami, joined the national movement to remove monuments and change street names in which the confederates are honored.
In this case, the name of three streets will be changed in honor of generals Robert E. Lee, John Bell Hood and Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the first members of the racist organization Ku Klux Klan (KKK), that are located in The heart of a mostly African American neighborhood.
“It’s time to change the names and the time is now,” said Commissioner Debra Case during the meeting, which lasted for three hours. “We must do the right thing and we must do it right now,” Sun Sentinel reports.
However, the outcome of the vote, which came out with five votes in favor of the measure and two against, is not final, and next August 30 is expected to revert to the issue.
If the project is completed, Forrest Street would be renamed Savannah Street; Hood Street would change its name to Macon and Lee Street would be Louisville.
The debate over the existence of Confederate monuments, flags, and streets thrived after June, white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine people in an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Following this tragic fact, several states pushed for changes to minimize the visibility of the symbol of secessionist states, which were in favor of slavery during the Civil War.
In Arizona, African-American leaders demanded last June that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey withdraw the six Confederate monuments that exist in the state as they symbolize racism, segregation and hatred.
In May, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, retired the last commemorative statue of the Confederate movement, in honor of General Robert E. Lee.
In total, four monuments were removed from the Confederation of public spaces in the city after the mayor announced the decision to start withdrawing them last April.
