On February 1st, bills were introduced into the Tennessee House and Senate to rename a small portion of Rep John Lewis Way. Currently, the road is 1.9 miles long. This bill would rename one .2 mile section. The new name would be “President Donald Trump Blvd.” The reason this is significant is that it would change the address for the legislator’s Nashville offices.
The bill is SB1407 in the State Senate and HB1372 in the House.
Currently, the Tennessee State House is completely encircled by roads named after famous Black leaders. Dr. M.L.K Jr Blvd, Rosa Parks Lane, and Rep John Lewis Way. Of the three people, only John Lewis was born in Tennessee, however, he was a US Representative of Georgia.
Across the United States, there is a major ongoing effort to rename streets, schools, parks, plazas, and military bases that are named after White people. Often the original name is replaced with that of a Black person. Much of this is openly vindictive and motivated by racial animosity.
Dr. M.L.K. Blvd itself used to be Charlotte Ave, which was named after Charlotte Robertson. She was the first White female settler in Charlotte, TN. Charlotte’s name was removed and replaced by MLK in 2018.
Rosa Parks Lane was 13th Ave North and changed in 2003.
Rep John Lewis Way was changed from 5th Ave in 2020. The Minority Caucus of the Metropolitan Nashville used Lewis’ death and the hysteria of nationwide BLM riots to push through a city bill to rename the street after Lewis. This name change forced all the state legislators to adopt an address bearing the name of a Democrat Representative from a different state, even though the TN legislator has one of the largest Republican majorities in the country.
It the bill passes. the legislative addresses will change from 425 Rep. John Lewis Way N., to 425 Pres Donald Trump Blvd.
