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Wednesday, Jan 11, 2012 8:27 PM UTC

Memphis May Finally Name City Street After King

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Topics: From the Wires,

Memphis May Finally Name City Street After KingA trolley car crosses Linden Avenue on Main Street on Wednesday, Jan. 11 in Memphis, Tenn. A proposal to rename nine blocks of Linden Avenue to Dr. Martin Luther King Avenue is expected to pass Thursday when it comes before the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Board. As of Tuesday the board hadn’t received any comment opposing the honor for King, who was killed by assassin James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)(Credit: AP)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — About 900 U.S. cities have named streets after the Rev. Martin Luther King since he was assassinated in 1968.

Memphis, the city where he was gunned down, is not one of them.

That could change under a new proposal to name a street through the heart of the city’s tourist district. There is already a stretch of interstate in the city named for the civil rights icon, but no local street.

The proposal to rename Linden Avenue to Dr. Martin Luther King Avenue is expected to be passed Thursday by the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Board.

Former city councilman Berlin Boyd says it is seen by many residents as a sign that the city is moving to heal the wounds caused by the assassination.

More Adrian Sainz.

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