CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Crews began the process of changing street signs on Stonewall Street in Uptown as the Charlotte Legacy Commission's renaming of nine streets with ties to the Confederacy and white supremacy concludes.
Stonewall Street, which runs from Interstate 277 to Bank of America Stadium in the southeast corner of Uptown, will be renamed Brooklyn Village Avenue, effective June 30. With the new name, the city commission was looking to honor the legacy of Brooklyn, a predominately Black neighborhood that was home to over a thousand families, 200 businesses and numerous establishments until they were relocated or destroyed by the end of the 1970s, according to a history compiled by UNC Charlotte.
Stonewall Street was originally named for Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, according to commission documents. Another road named after him, Jackson Avenue, was also renamed by the commission.
The City of Charlotte provided city council minutes showing Stonewall Street likely received its name in June 1869, when the city created four streets in honor of Confederate figures.
"Streets named as follows: Vance, Hill, Stonewall, & Lee," the minutes read.
The city states Lee and Vance streets likely disappeared as Charlotte grew and developed.
The Legacy Commission, a 15-person committee appointed by the mayor and city council in 2020, has been making changes "reflective of the inclusive vision it strives to achieve" for the city, according to its online mission statement.
"The Legacy Commission believes that the continued memorialization of slave owners, Confederate leaders, and white supremacists on street signs does not reflect the values that Charlotte upholds today and is a direct affront to descendants of the enslaved and oppressed African Americans who labored to build this city," the statement reads.
There are more than 70 city streets in Charlotte that honor slavery, slave owners, Confederate veterans and supporters of white supremacy or romanticized notions of the antebellum South, according to commission documents. Their highest priority went to changing "streets named for leaders of the Confederacy and white supremacists who actively fought to defend slavery and against racial equality," the commission's 2020 recommendations explained.
Streets renamed since 2020 include:
- Jefferson Davis Street
- Phifer Avenue
- Jackson Avenue
- Zebulon Avenue
- Aycock Lane
- Hill Street
- Morrison Boulevard