New Orleans: Push to rename Lee boulevard after Toussaint

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans city council member is pushing to change a street currently named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and replace it with one the city’s most famous musicians, Allen Toussaint. Jared C. Brossett introduced an ordinance to rename the street that goes through the northern part of the city near Lake Pontchartrain after Toussaint. He died in 2015. Toussaint was a songwriter, producer, pianist and performer whose decades-long career helped make such hits as “Working in the Coal Mine,” and ″Southern Nights.” The city’s planning commission now has 60 days to hold a public hearing and then present a report before the matter goes to the full council, according to a press release from Brossett’s office.