An affluent satellite city in Davidson County in Tennessee has won the latest round in its fight against the State Historical Commission to rename Confederate-themed city street names, potentially opening the door for other cities and towns to do the same.
Forest Hills, a community of about 5,000 people, fought for two years to rename six streets in a subdivision built in the 1950s and 1960s by private developers who drew inspiration from the Civil War to name its tree-lined roads and cul-de-sacs.
Now, in a different era where million-dollar homes line bucolic streets, complaints from property owners prompted city officials in 2022 to petition the Tennessee Historical Commission to replace the street names — among them “Confederate Drive” and “Robert E. Lee Drive,” “Jefferson Davis Drive” and “Robert E. Lee Court.” They were denied.
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Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal this month sided with the city in overruling the Tennessee Historical Commission’s decision that the street names are protected under a state law known as the Heritage Protection Act.