Valdosta Residents Want to Rename Street for Barack Obama

A civil rights group in Valdosta wants to change one of the south Georgia city’s streets to Barack Obama Boulevard.

Back in 2014, a local racial justice group, the Mary Turner Project published research on several Valdosta streets named for slaveowners. The list included Forrest Street, named after Confederate General and subsequent Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Now, a Valdosta civil rights group, the People’s Tribunal, wants to rename it for former President Barack Obama. The Rev. Floyd Rose, the group’s president, said this is the first time they’ve tried to change a street name, but there are others around town.