Lee Highway is being renamed in order to realize the years-long grassroots community effort to create a welcoming Main Street by removing the word "Highway"and to begin to reconcile the painful racial history many in our community experienced by removing the name "Lee."
On December 9, 2020, the Working Group On Renaming Lee Highway selected its top choice and four alternatives for Lee Highway's new name. The Working Group’s preferred name is Mildred & Richard Loving Avenue, honoring the couple who fought for marriage equality for interracial couples.
The landmark Loving Supreme Court case literally changed the United States. The case brought an end to the separate and unequal, yet legally sanctioned, way of life in America, it fueled the rise of multi-racial families, and it supported the June 2015 ruling that legalized same sex marriage. The name Loving has both Virginia and national significance and it encompasses justice.
