The City of Los Angeles renamed a three-mile section of road in honor of former President Barack Obama on Saturday during a ceremony before a mostly black crowd.
The the stretch of Rodeo road between Mid-City and Culver City will now be called “Barack Obama Boulevard.” The renaming is part of the city’s move to create “presidential row,” a series of streets named after presidents including Adams, Jefferson, and Washington.
“I get to live in a lifetime where we elected our first black president,” South L.A. Rev. Russell Thornhill told ABC 7. “I get to share that with my mother, who’s 92 years old who voted and actually went to the inauguration. I called her before I came here to let her know what I was doing, and she was just in tears because she was seeing in her lifetime… the naming of a street of the first black president in this community.”
Last year, the city council approved the renaming of the section of rodeo to honor the first black president saying, “For every child who will drive down this street and see the President’s name, this will serve as a physical reminder that no goal is out of reach and that no dream is too big.”
The new Obama Boulevard joins last year’s renaming of a section of 134 Freeway as President Barack H. Obama Highway.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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