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The Effort To Rename Streets That Honor White Supremacists

Nick de la Canal
/
WFAE

Jan. 5, 2021

It’s 2021, and Charlotte is focusing attention on its legacy. Or at the very least, it's making an effort to correct action that once honored the legacy of white supremacy.

Last summer, Mayor Vi Lyles formed the Legacy Commission, a group that was tasked with studying street names and monuments in Charlotte that honor Confederate soldiers, slaveholders and segregationists. Late last year, the commission recommended changes to several street names in the city with ties to white supremacy.

Guest host Erik Spanberg from the Charlotte Business Journal meets members of the commission to discuss what they learned in their study and the criteria for how streets in the city will be named moving forward — as well as their other recommendations

Guests:

Emily Zimmern, chair of the Charlotte Legacy Commission (retired Levine Museum of the New South president and CEO)

Willie Griffin, consultant for the Legacy Commission, historian for the Levine Museum of the New South

Karen Cox, consultant for the Legacy Commission, professor of history at UNC Charlotte

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Charlotte Talks Executive Producer Wendy Herkey has been with WFAE since 1998, beginning in the membership department, and has been on the Charlotte Talks staff since 1999.