*The city of Riviera Beach, Fla. has voted to ditch the name of its Old Dixie Highway and rename the stretch of road after the country’s first black president, according to the Palm Beach Post.
President Barack Obama Highway has replaced the previous name, which harkens back to the slave-holding South. The move follows a 4-1 city council vote in August to remove the word “Dixie” from all public signage.
Riviera Beach Mayor Thomas Masters, whose city is 66 percent black, spearheaded the effort to name the highway, which at one point intersects with a road named after civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr.
The change comes amid an emotional national debate about displaying symbols of the pro-slavery Confederacy on public grounds. Several states have removed Confederate battle flags from public property after the shooting at an African-American church in Charleston, S.C., earlier this year.
As previously reported, the New Orleans City Council on Thursday voted to remove statues on public property depicting Confederate war heroes, including Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee.
