LSU changing name of well known road named after confederate officer

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BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - LSU will change the name of Raphael Semmes Road which runs in front of the Student Union. The road was named after a confederate officer.

The change is part of a plan to rename several streets on campus including a street named after former Louisiana Governor William C.C. Claiborne.

The name of Raphael Semmes Road will be changed to Veterans Drive later this week.

Semmes was an officer in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War, serving as captain of the CSS Alabama.

Earlier this month, LSU professor Bob Mann wrote an opinion piece calling for the name to be changed. “Almost 20 years into the 21st Century, it's time for Semmes and the other Confederates honored on the LSU campus to go,” Mann wrote. “They have no place on the buildings and streets of a public university that claims to value diversity and inclusion,” he wrote.

“I think it’s great,” Mann said Monday. “It’s a great thing and I congratulate the university,” he said. Mann said there were already plans in the works to change the street name prior to him writing his opinion piece on November 2.

The LSU Board of Supervisors approved the name changes in October. LSU said it conducted a review of all street names on campus in deciding which ones to change. “During the review process, research was conducted on those who have campus roadways named for them and their contribution to the university,” LSU said in a statement. “The majority had little to no significant connection to LSU and were named without a formal process,” the statement said.

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