Lake Worth Beach City commissioners are holding a meeting at 6:00 p.m. today urging the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners to rename Dixie Highway.
According to Commissioner, Omari Hardy, the word “Dixie” refers to the Southern U.S. states, including the Confederate States of America, and is associated with “racist associations ranging from Souther slave owners and the Confederacy to the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacy more broadly.”
The agenda to rename the highway would remove the perpetuation and celebration of systematic racism from the south county line in Boca Raton to Jupiter in the north.
The Old Dixie Highway and West Dixie Highway are within the city jurisdiction including the section between Southwest 304th Street and Southwest 146th Street, and the section between Northeast 163rd Street and Northeast 215th Street.
Commissioners are working to change the name to honor Harriet Tubman, an American abolitionist and political activist who helped rescue slaves through the Underground Railroad.