Council to vote to rename Jeff Davis Avenue

As part of the push to rename city streets and landmarks that pay homage to the Confederacy, City Council will vote Thursday to do away with Jeff Davis Avenue, in North Central Austin. The resolution, authored by Council Member Leslie Pool, proposes renaming the street after Will Holland, a former slave who fought in the Union Army and was later elected to the Texas House of Representatives and the Travis County Commissioners Court. He later became an education advocate and successfully lobbied the state to fund the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute for Colored Youth, which he later oversaw as superintendent. If Council approves the name change, city staff will undertake a process to alert all the residents on the street of the new name as well as a variety of public agencies, including the Police and Fire departments and the post office, which will continue to deliver mail that references the old street name to the newly named street.