Valdosta City Council votes on name change for Forrest Street

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - The Valdosta City Council met Thursday to vote on a request to change the name of Forrest Street.

After five months, a group completed the requirements needed to make it happen and hoped to change the name to Barack Obama Boulevard.

The commission voted and the name change was approved Thursday.

The group is called A.C.T.I.O.N., or A Chance To Initiate Opportunities Now.

The group said they gathered more than the required 60% of resident and business signatures.

DJ Davis, leading this initiative, said it was challenging. Many times volunteers got doors slammed in their faces.

The group said the street is named after a former Ku Klux Klan leader.

”The meaning of names is powerful. It shows how much the community cared about changing his name and these are people on the streets, so the credit doesn’t come to me. The credit goes to the residents of Forrest Street that wanted this name change and they allowed it to happen by signing the signature,” said Davis.

Some opposed to changing the name argued that the street is named after a Black business owner, Elbert Forrest, citing past city council records.

The name change will cost nearly $3,000. City officials said the money will pay for things like changing the street signs. The group said they’ve already raised the money to cover it.

Now that it has been approved, a 90-day period will be given for emergency officials to update dispatch records and people living on that street to update financial statements.

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