The Birmingham City Council will not consider a resolution that seeks to rename a portion of Sixteenth Street North to Black Lives Matter Boulevard.
Sixteenth Street North was the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement and the site of one of the most egregious racially-motivated hate crimes in history — the 1963 church bombing that killed four little girls and sent shock waves around the world.
The resolution was 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.
However, a group of local activists from Black Lives Matter Birmingham, Think Rubix and Be A Blessing Birmingham penned an Open Letter to Birmingham Leaders asking the council to not rename the street.
It would not be a good idea to change it to Black Lives Matter Blvd.”
In a Facebook post on Saturday morning leaders of historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church also expressed opposition to the resolution saying it was a “bad idea.”
