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Activist, Georgia mayor clash over renaming street for Obama

Activist, Georgia mayor clash over renaming street for Obama | iNFOnews.ca
In this Thursday, May 23, 2019 photo, Police escort civil rights activist Floyd Rose out of a city council meeting at city hall, in Valdosta, Ga. Rose was pressing city officials to rename Forrest Street for the nation's first black president. He says the street was named in 1883 for Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Valdosta Police Chief Leslie Manahan said Rose wasn't charged. (Thomas Lynn/The Valdosta Daily Times via AP)

VALDOSTA, Ga. – A civil rights activist clashed with a Georgia mayor over a proposal to rename a street for former President Barack Obama.

The Valdosta Daily Times reports police escorted 80-year-old Rev. Floyd Rose from a Valdosta city council meeting Thursday after Mayor John Gayle said he kept talking beyond his public comment time.

Rose wants Forrest Street renamed to honour the nation’s first black president. He says it was named in 1883 for Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Ku Klux Klan leader.

Gayle said petitioners need to follow a new ordinance, but Rose said it was designed to thwart the name change. It says only one signature can come from each parcel along a road, so multiple signatures from a single apartment complex don’t count.

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Information from: The Valdosta Daily Times, http://valdostadailytimes.com/

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