UPDATE 9/21/17: The board meeting is now set for next Monday at 10:00 a.m. If you have not emailed per this Action Alert, please do so today or Friday: . Your message can be short: “Please remove the name “Jefferson Davis Highway.” Give reasons if you have time.
Here is the official notice with the meeting agenda attached.
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Original Action Alert, published September 3:
Two of our hard-working precinct committee people have submitted a proposal to the Arizona Board on Geographic and Historic Names regarding removal of the name “Jefferson Davis Highway” from Highway 60, southeast of Apache Junction. This proposal and others will be considered at the Board’s quarterly meeting in September. The date is not yet announced, but we’ll keep you posted when it is. Starting right now, you can comment on the proposal, which is here: Jefferson Davis Hwy Name Removal-Public Version
Please make an effort to participate in Public Comment, to share your story with the Board about what this means to you. Your comments are particularly valuable if you live locally to the highway or have a historical, social, political, or cultural expertise to provide to the board in their decision making. The more comments they receive, the better. Be aware your comments will be part of the public record.
You can send a comment via email or letter to Ryan Ehrfurth, the staff support to the Board. His contact is:
Ryan Ehrfurth
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
1901 W. Madison St.
Phoenix, AZ 85009
The second method for public comment is attending the Board Meeting, which anyone from the public can attend. If you are interested in attending, please watch this space for the date of the meeting.
Please note that this is regarding the renaming of the road, not removal of the monument. The Board cannot do anything about physically removing/relocating monuments. However, we believe there will be more support for removal of the monument once the Highway name is removed.
There are two additional proposals submitted to the board that we are aware of, one is renaming the highway to Rose Mofford Highway, after the first female Governor of Arizona, and another renaming to Martin Luther King, Jr Highway. We support these efforts and think that that the information in our proposal will boost rather than detract from their arguments.
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