Activist, Georgia mayor clash over renaming street for Obama

May 24, 2019 12:00 am • Last Updated: May 24, 2019 9:29 pm

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. (AP) — 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 the 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 honor 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.

Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.

STORIES THAT MAY INTEREST YOU