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U.S. NEWS Monday 6 May 2019
Stretch of road in Los Angeles

renamed Obama Boulevard

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A in our lifetime, who was a whites. After the U.S. Su-
stretch of road in Los Ange- president for everybody: preme Court banned hous-
les has been renamed af- Barack Hussein Obama," ing discrimination, and seg-
ter former President Barack Garcetti said. regation was scaled back,
Obama. A couple who proposed black residents moved into
A concert and ceremony the name change told the the formerly white enclave
Saturday unveiled Obama Times they wanted to raise of Baldwin Hills and estab-
Boulevard. The street re- the profile of the road, at- lished the first of L.A.'s black In this Thursday Dec. 20, 2018, file photo, signs have gone up
naming a section of a Los Angeles-area freeway as the Presi-
placed Rodeo Road, a tract more funding for the middle- and upper-class dent Barack H. Obama Highway, seen from Pasadena, Calif.
3 ½-mile street that runs Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw neighborhoods.q Associated Press
across the city's historic neighborhood and honor
black neighborhood. It also the 44th president.
intersects with Martin Lu- "With this change, we are
ther King Jr. Boulevard and publicly documenting
further establishes a "presi- what Obama's legacy as
dential row" that includes our nation's first black Presi-
Washington, Adams and dent means to our city and
Jefferson boulevards. our South Los Angeles com-
"I get to live in a lifetime munity," City Council Presi-
where we elected our first dent Herb Wesson said in a
black president," The Rev. statement.
Russell Thornhill of South "For every child who will
Los Angeles told KABC TV. drive down this street and
"I get to share that with my see the President's name,
mother, who's 92 years old this will serve as a physical
who voted and actually reminder that no goal is
went to the inauguration. out of reach and that no
I called her before I came dream is too big."
here to let her know what While residents were re-
I was doing, and she was ceptive to having a street
just in tears because she named after Obama, some
was seeing in her lifetime believed organizers should
... the naming of a street of have chosen a more promi-
the first black president in nent street. Wesson argued
this community." Rodeo Road was symboli-
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Gar- cally important: The road is
cetti noted at Saturday's home to Rancho Cienega
ceremony that Obama Sports Complex, where
Boulevard is in a section of Obama held a campaign
the city that has a number rally when he was running
of other streets named af- for president in 2007.
ter presidents, the Los An- For decades, discrimina-
geles Times reported. tory practices, including
"As we drive through this the use of racially restric-
city and we see past presi- tive covenants on deeds
dents on Adams, on Wash- to keep people of color
ington, on Jefferson, now from buying homes, kept
we'll have one that was the area off-limits to non-