In this Nov. 29, 2004 file photo, traffic passes a road sign designating Confederate Boulevard near downtown Little Rock, Ark. The Little Rock Planning Commission will consider a request to erase the remaining four blocks of Confederate Boulevard from city maps Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, the 58th anniversary of 1,200 federal troops arriving in Little Rock to help ensure the integration of Central High School. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston, File)
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Little Rock Planning Commission has voted in support of changing the name of a stretch of road called Confederate Boulevard.
Confederate Boulevard combines with Springer Boulevard and Barber Street to make a roughly 2.5-mile thoroughfare in a predominantly Black section of southeast Little Rock that runs past the Little Rock National Cemetery.
The commission voted Thursday to rename the four-block Confederate Boulevard section as a continuation of Springer, after one of the area’s first Black property owners. Property owners along the road gathered signatures to bring the issue to the commission.
The vote came 58 years to the day after 1,200 troops arrived to escort nine black students to their first day of class during the integration of Central High School.
The Little Rock Board of Directors will have the final say on the change.