Council set to vote on resolution renaming portion of Sixteenth Street North to Black Lives Matter Boulevard

Next Tuesday the Birmingham City Council will be considering a resolution submitted and recommended by Council President William Parker that seeks to rename a portion of Sixteenth Street North to Black Lives Matter Boulevard.

The street was the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement and the site of one of the most egregious racially-motivated hate crimes in history — the church bombing that killed four little girls and sent shock waves around the world.

The resolution is seeking to rename Sixteenth Street North from First Avenue North to Sixth Avenue North as a way to honor the BLM movement and join that with Birmingham’s history of civil rights activism.

This week, volunteers came together to inscribe “Black Lives Matter” on First Avenue South, next to Railroad Park.

“We want to show the world that Birmingham has been and will remain a beacon of hope in the ongoing fight for justice and equality in this country,” President Parker said. “We have a huge community of activists here and we want to marry our past with the present movement by renaming a portion of this hallowed street.”

The resolution will be on Tuesday’s Birmingham City Council agenda.