NCDOT looks to take Jefferson Davis name off highway

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Transportation officials are taking steps to remove the last vestiges of a highway named for Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports the N.C. Department of Transportation is removing signs and markers in the state-owned right of way.

The groundwork for the removal was laid this summer after the death of George Floyd led to a review of Confederate monuments and symbols.

The Daughters of the Confederacy conceived of the Jefferson Davis Highway in 1913, partly as an answer to the Lincoln Highway that was dedicated that year between New York and San Francisco.