A nightmare on Lee Street?
"Who knows who Lee Street is named for anyway?" Mike Barber says of his suggestion to rechristen that street and High Point Road in honor of World War II veterans.
Barber, a city councilman, sees the new name as part of a grand plan to sell the naming rights to the coliseum, which was built in honor of veterans.
War Memorial Auditorium would retain its name, as Barber sees it, and the new corridor would provide a way to expand recognition of veterans while targeting the area for revitalization.
But would anyone care if the name Lee Street suddenly disappeared.
It depends on which Lee you're talking about.
No one seems to know for sure, but there are two theories: Robert E. Lee, the Confederate hero, or Col. Lighthorse Harry Lee, Robert's father and a hero in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Bill Moore, retired former director of the Greensboro Historical Museum, warns that it's just speculation, but the evidence points to Robert E.
Moore's research reveals the name Lee Street dates back to 1879 but no earlier. Coincidentally, Silas Dodson, a Confederate veteran, was mayor from 1877 to 1881.
Moore postulates that Dodson may have come up wuth the street name during his tenure in office.
This is pure conjecture, of course. And it probably won't become an issue anyway. Barber will be the first to tell he's coming up with wild and crazy ideas every day. Who's to say this one sticks?
But if it does, be warned. We published a letter honoring Robert E. Lee back in January. We are still receiving reaction letters, pro and con -- so many that I had to stop publishing them.
You know how people are about the Civil War around here. It never ended.
Comments (6)
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Allen, The war ended a long time ago. The modern conflict is caused by a continued invasion of northern culture that thinks it knows what's best for the South, like renaming our streets, wanting to end holiday's honoring Confederate dead and likes to tell us how wrong it is to fly the stars/bars.
Posted on February 24, 2007 1:48 PM
Allen, the war ended a long time ago. The modern conflict is cause by a recalcitrant subset of southern culture that can't seem to overlook this inconvenient fact and therefore insists on naming its streets after Confederates, wants to maintain holidays honoring said Confederates, and like to tell us how appropriate it is to fly the stars/bars.
Sheesh.
Posted on February 24, 2007 3:53 PM
I just always assume that the people who tell African-Americans to get over racism (which was inarguably supported by American institutions at least as recently as the 1960s and 1970s) are not the ones who can't get over the Civil War (which I believe was fought a few years earlier than those decades).
Posted on February 24, 2007 10:31 PM
Hugh:
I was born and reared in the South and I'm no great fan of the Stars and Bars, which were appropriated as a racist symbol in more modern times.
Posted on February 25, 2007 8:43 AM
I think you're all off track, Lee Street is named for the great,great grandfather of the fabulous 1950's TV-Radio entertainer- Pinky Lee, who was one of the first stand-up comedians to work the Thirteen Original colonies. He brought down the house one night at a tavern that was located on the modern day Lee St. and they decided to name the street after him.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Posted on February 26, 2007 9:53 AM
SHF is right: white southerners invented grievance politics and trauma-based cultural identities. And they worked so well, people have been copying them ever since.
Lee, incidentally, got over it.
Posted on February 26, 2007 4:31 PM