CARRBORO, NC -- The Town of Carrboro celebrated the renaming of Carr Street during the Braxton Foushee Street Dedication on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.
Due to rain, the event moved indoors to the Carrboro Century Center, which quickly filled with about 120 community members. The street dedication celebration included remarks from community leaders, poetry by Carrboro Poet Laureate Liza Wolff-Francis, music by Brentton Harrison, and refreshments.
In addition to Braxton Foushee, the featured community leaders for this event included Mayor Pro Tem Danny Nowell, N.C. Rep. Allen Buansi; Chapel Hill Town Council Member Paris Miller-Foushee; the Rev. Prince Raney Rivers of Union Baptist Church of Durham; Dave Mason Jr., president of the Lincoln High School Alumni Association and member of the Chapel Hill Nine; Charles Alston, friend and member of the Orange County Training School (OCTS)/Lincoln Alumni Association; Nevaeh Hodge, 2024 Pauli Murray Award Winner; Danita Mason-Hogans, president of Bridging the Gap DMH; Delores Bailey, vice president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and executive director of EmPOWERment Inc.; Stancil Clark, scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 411; Mayor Barbara Foushee; and the Rev. Dr. Rodney Lavon Coleman of the First Baptist Church of Chapel Hill.
About the Street Renaming
Braxton Foushee is a local civil rights leader, a current Planning Board member, and the first Black member of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen (now the Town Council). The street renaming in his honor was proposed last fall on Oct. 17, 2023, when the Council heard a request from Dave Mason, president of the Lincoln High School Alumni Association, Pat Mason and Herman Murrell Foushee. The Council voted to approve the street name change on Nov. 29, 2023. The change became official on March 27, 2024.
Carr Street is named for Julian Carr, a noted white supremacist. The namesake of Carrboro, he was an active and influential participant in Jim Crow era efforts to create a system of racial segregation. A Truth Plaque at Town Hall reads, in part: “Although the town continues to bear his name, the values and actions of Carr do not represent Carrboro today.”
