North Carolina Department of Transportation officials are working to remove remaining signs and markers for confederate monuments including a stretch of highway named in honor of confederate president Jefferson Davis over a century ago.
According to The News & Observer, the 162 miles of the highway starts at the Virginia state line along US 15 to Sanford and then on US1 to the South Carolina state line near Rockingham. The groundwork for the removal was laid this summer after civil unrest that led to a review of confederate monuments and symbols in the state.
"The Daughters of the Confederacy conceived of the Jefferson Davis Highway in 1913, partly as an answer to the Lincoln Highway between New York and San Francisco dedicated that year. The group identified the highway’s route along existing roads, then promoted the name with signs, stone markers and state and local government resolutions."
Virginia officially adopted the name, but NCDOT officials say despite requests from the Daughters of the Confederacy in the 1920s and again in the late 1950s, North Carolina never did.
“So there is not an officially named Jefferson Davis Highway from the Board of Transportation out there anywhere, but there are some local designations that appear to have been put up within our right of way,” chairman Mike Fox told board members in June.
NCDOT wants signs and markers gone, but will not rename the section of U.S. 1 in Lee County that is actually called Jefferson Davis Highway.
Davis, a slaveowner and politician, has no direct ties to North Carolina. He served as president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives before the American Civil War.