ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 TAG: 9612310114
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: HAMPTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
First, it was Military Highway - built during World War II to connect military bases on the Peninsula. Then, it became Mercury Boulevard in honor of the first American manned mission to orbit the Earth.
Now, a Norfolk-based group wants one of the Peninsula's busiest roads renamed in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
``Astronauts were great. Let's not take away anything they did. But we're talking about a Nobel Peace winner, an individual who really affected the way America is today,'' said Frederick L. Overby-El, a member of Hampton Roads March Against Poverty Campaign Inc.
The group is hoping to get 10,000 signatures on a petition to present to Hampton and Newport News officials. Both city councils would have to approve any name change. So far, the group has approached the city managers of both cities.
Built in the early 1940s, Mercury Boulevard has evolved from a two-lane route to Fort Monroe into a congested highway 12 lanes wide from the Hampton-Newport News city line to North Armistead Avenue.
Hampton has an established practice of placing roadside honorary plaques rather than renaming roads. That's what happened when residents suggested renaming Hampton Roads Center Parkway in honor of slain Hampton police officer Kenny Wallace.
Roy Lee Perry-Bey, head of Citizens of Hampton Roads March Against Poverty Campaign, said the group might consider that alternative if it fails to get the street renamed.
``I think flexibility is important. Naming the street is a means, not an end. It is a symbolic gesture,'' he said.
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