Florida Town Votes to Rename ‘Old Dixie Highway’ ‘Barack Obama Highway’

The city council of Riviera Beach, Florida voted 4-1 on Wednesday night to rename a stretch of Old Dixie Highway as “Barack Obama Highway.”

The Palm Beach Post notes that “because Old Dixie is a Palm Beach County road, the county would have to approve of the name change.”

“There might soon be a place where Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. meet — and it won’t be just in the hearts of Americans who revere both men,” the Post gushes. Presumably it means Barack Obama Highway will intersect Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard somewhere in the town, although they didn’t feel it necessary to explain the obsequious remark further.

“Each member will vote Yay or Nay to rid this city of a street name that still invokes memories of racism and slavery in the Old South,” said Mayor Thomas Masters before the vote, as reported by WPTV News.

“There’s definitely a time and place for everything and it’s definitely time,” WPTV reports an unnamed resident saying of the name change during the city council meeting.  “Changing the name is about being an example for our nation. A journey begins with one step.”

WPTV reports that the mayor asked council members to “rise above any divisive thoughts about President Obama and get rid of the Old Dixie name.”