Martin Luther King Jr: Restoring Streets With His Name!

Today, in cities across the nation, streets named after Martin Luther King Jr. are often an example of what King spent his life fighting against. Melvin White walks down an empty Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in St. Louis, Missouri, recounting what once was a business or a home, but is now a rundown shell. In 2004, White began to notice the stark contrast between the poor conditions on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive and a parallel street, which was once impoverished but has since experienced development and is now full of bustling businesses. White was deeply bothered by this. In the years that followed, he traveled to a number of U.S. cities with streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most recognizable leaders of the American civil rights movement. Melvin White wants to revitalize Martin Luther King Jr. Drive so that it better reflects King's legacy. There are approximately 900 streets named after King in the United States, including in Puerto Rico, according to research by Derek Alderman, head of the geography department at the University of Tennessee. Cities began naming and renaming streets after King immediately following his assassination in 1968. R.I.P. Martin Luther King, Jr. Posted By Persist