ATLANTA (AP) – Hundreds of Girl Scouts from across Georgia gathered inside the state Capitol on Tuesday, offering cookies and smiles as they sought to convince lawmakers to get their founder’s name affixed to a Savannah bridge that currently honors a white segregationist.
The bridge may bear former Gov. Eugene Talmadge’s name, but Rep. Ron Stephens said he recently learned the state legislature never officially named the bridge for Talmadge. The Department of Transportation never gave it an official name, nor did lawmakers. Legislation to do so passed the House in 1991, but never passed the Senate, he said.
Buoyed by this technicality, Stephens, a Savannah Republican, introduced a bill to name the bridge after Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts in the coastal city more than a century ago.
Last month, Stephens had expressed doubts that his colleagues in the Republican-controlled legislature would be eager to rename the bridge and risk angering their conservative base in an election year. But that was before he knew the bridge had never been officially named.
Stephens said his proposal has more than 50 legislative supporters and will likely get more, once others learn about the technicality.