A street inside New York City’s only Army base will soon bear the name of a Black officer who died saving others in Vietnam — instead of the name of the Confederate general who led the South’s attempt at secession.
The street will be renamed John Warren Avenue on Friday to honor First Lt. John Earl Warren Jr., a Brooklynite who was just 22 when he was killed in the Vietnam War. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, for his valor. It had been called “General Lee Avenue” after Robert E. Lee, who served at the base 20 years before the Civil War.
The new name will be unveiled at a ceremony at the base, Fort Hamilton, which sits on the Brooklyn side of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The change comes after a yearslong push by local officials that gained steam amid the nationwide outcry over the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis two years ago.
At least 230 Confederate symbols have been taken down, moved or renamed in recent years, though thousands remain, mostly in the South.
