State Representative Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) has introduced House Resolution 1351, which would rename Memorial Drive to “Veterans Memorial Drive.”
The corridor runs through DeKalb and Fulton counties and includes US 78 and State Route 410, or Stone Mountain Freeway. Each member of the DeKalb delegation is a co-sponsor of HR 1351 and proposes that the road have a name that honors all U.S. veterans.
“Citizens of Fulton and DeKalb counties do not want to name one of its main thoroughfares to honor the Confederacy,” Oliver said in a press release. “Memorial Drive links our State Capitol to a Confederate memorial, known for much of the last century to be a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan and the Lost Cause. It is time for the State of Georgia to change the name of Memorial Drive. We, therefore, propose to rename the road as Veterans Memorial Drive in honor of all veterans, not just Confederate soldiers.”
The Atlanta portion of the corridor was first named East Fair Street and is one of the oldest roads in the city. In October 1927, during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, The Stone Mountain Memorial Association broke ground on Stone Mountain Memorial Drive, lengthening East Fair Street and linking it to Stone Mountain.
By 1930, the state of Georgia officially named “East Fair Street” as “Memorial Drive,” creating a 15-mile uninterrupted line running from the Georgia State Capitol to the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial.
Both Fulton and DeKalb have been removing monuments and changing street names linked to the Confederacy for a number of years despite pushback from conservative lawmakers.