Louis Waller Way

STUDENTS SEEK TO RENAME CHERRY AVENUE FOR FORMER NAACP PRESIDENT LOUIS E. WALLER

Washington High School student Gerald Comedy, at right, holds a new sign for Cherry Avenue. Pictured on the far left is Phyllis Waller beside teacher Jeff Bunner and four other students.

Students in an advanced-placement history class at Washington High School have proposed that the east side of Cherry Avenue, off South Main Street, would be named Martin Luther King Avenue, and the west side, near Washington County Courthouse, would be named Louis E. Waller Way in honor of the noted Washington civil rights figure.

Jeff Bunner, Washington High School history and social studies teacher, said every year his students have a year-end project.  “I give the kids something to do, and it always involves something they can leave to posterity. Sometimes we try to do something for the community.”

During a discussion of civil rights, Bunner said students learned that locally there is no Martin Luther King Boulevard, and they decided to mount an attempt to rename a local street for him. Nationally, said Bunner, there are between 900 and 1,000 Martin Luther King Boulevards.

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The class of 17 advanced-placement students viewed a documentary on King and also charted local civil rights history from the same period, creating a parallel timeline of national and local civil rights events. That led them to study Waller’s impact on the Washington area.  “We didn’t know that it was such a big movement here in Washington,” said junior Isabel Marshall.  Fellow junior Gerald Comedy said students learned that Waller, who died in 2009, was instrumental in desegregating Washington schools, restaurants, theaters and even the local swimming pool.

When it came to Waller, the students got a guiding hand from his daughter, Phyllis Waller, former president of the NAACP in Washington.  She’s among those elated by the students’ effort on her father’s behalf.  “I’m very excited about this project,” she said. “I’m sure he would be, too, if he was alive.”

Bunner and some of his students made their first official foray into getting Cherry’s name changed when they appeared at a City Council meeting Monday to seek support from local officials.  Mayor Scott Putnam said the students will need to give notice of their plan to tenants, businesses and property owners in the affected area and collect feedback. Then, a public hearing will be scheduled. Putnam doesn’t expect much opposition.