Alexandria’s city council on Saturday voted to rename four streets that have Confederate references.
Jordan Street and Jordan Court, which referred to Confederate Brig. Gen. Thomas Jordan, has been rededicated to honor Thomasina E. Jordan, the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Electoral College who later became an Alexandria resident. She helped Virginia’s Indian tribes achieve official state recognition during the 1980s, according to a Library of Virginia biography.
North Breckinridge Place had been named for John Cabell Breckinridge, a former vice president of the U.S. who became the Confederate secretary of war in 1865 for the Confederate States. It was renamed for Harriet Jacobs, the founder of Alexandria’s first school for free Black children. She was an African American abolitionist who wrote the autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
An R will be dropped from Forrest Street to become Forest Street. It had been named for either Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest or French Forrest, a Confederate navy commander and builder of the CSS ironclad Virginia.
And an E will be added to Early Street in honor of Charity Adams Earley. It had been named for Brig. Gen. Jubal A. Early. Charity Adams Earley became the first Black female officer to join the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and later commanded the first African American female battalion deployed during World War II, directing 855 women who would deliver mail to soldiers. She would rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel, the first Black woman to do so.
Alexandria has at least 41 streets associated with Confederate military members. Some, like Breckinridge Place and Jordan Street, had different names until 1953 when the city adopted an ordinance to name streets running north and south for Confederate military leaders.
Feature image courtesy Alexandria city government
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