Georgia lawmakers may be drawn into a battle over historic names by none other than the Girl Scouts.
The group, which has cornered the market on Thin Mint cookies, wants the Talmadge Bridge renamed for its founder and Savannah native Juliette Gordon Low.
And the Girl Scouts are promising to take their case — and likely plenty of cookies — to the General Assembly, which opened its 2018 session on Monday.
The bridge is currently named for Eugene Talmadge, a segregationist who served as Georgia’s governor through parts of the 1930s and 1940s.
SavannahNow is reporting that representatives of the 1.8-million member Girl Scouts told the Savannah City Council on Thursday that they ask state lawmakers to approve the change.
The bridge, which spans the Savannah River, is one of the first things seen by many people as they enter the city and should be a “symbol of inclusivity like the Girl Scouts,” a spokeswoman for the group said.
Last year, the City Council passed a resolution recommending the structure be renamed the “Savannah Bridge.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has expressed a reluctance for state lawmakers to enter into the debate over Confederate symbolism that re-emerged after violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va., over the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. In an interview last month, he said he would hate to see “us become so fixated on looking back that we lose our focus on looking forward as a state.”
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