Last month, my colleague Hunter Walker published an in-depth look at Nashville city councilwoman Zulfat Suara efforts to fight a Tennessee state Republican push to rename a portion of John Lewis Way in Nashville after Donald Trump.
The effort to rename the street drew intense backlash given Lewis’ legacy and the nature of the Civil Rights leader’s relationship with Trump while he was still alive. Trump repeatedly antagonized and insulted the congressman before and after his death.
The Tennessee GOP proposal also highlighted key tensions in state and local law, but more broadly struck at the heart of an already contentious issue in the South about memorializing the dead. As Hunter put it:
In recent years there has been a growing movement to take down monuments and street names honoring Confederate generals. In 2016, lawmakers in Tennessee approved legislation that made it more difficult to rename streets or relocate statues that were erected to memorialize the dead. The proposal to rename “Rep. John Lewis Way” would remove some of those protections.
Suara tweeted last night announcing that the effort to rename a portion of the street honoring Lewis had been withdrawn.
Read Hunter’s piece in its entirety here.
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House Oversight Chair Calls It A ‘Mistake’ That US Didn’t Bomb Mexico During Trump Administration
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Election Deniers Have A New Target In Big Lie Crusade: A Non-Profit That Does Voter Roll Maintenance
Abbott Has Spent Nearly $1 Billion To Complete Trump’s Wall. He’s Just Getting Started.
Biden Proposes Tax Hikes On Rich To Extend Life Of Medicare
House Republicans Embrace Holman Rule To Gut Government Programs
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Trump Tees Up A Cycle Of Revenge With ‘I Am Your Retribution’ Speech — David Kurtz
What We Are Reading
US judge strikes down Missouri law banning local police from enforcing federal gun laws as unconstitutional — Associated Press
Fox News Edits Out Trump Saying He Might’ve Let Russia ‘Take Over’ Parts of Ukraine — Daily Beast
‘Very intimate knowledge’: What Ron DeSantis saw while serving at Guantanamo — McClatchy
