El-Yateem demands street name change at Ft. Hamilton
‘Memorializing Confederate generals has no place in 2017’ he says
As the fallout from the Charlottesville tragedy continued to unfold across the nation, a Bay Ridge City Council candidate joined an ongoing effort by Democratic elected officials to push the U.S. Army to strip the names of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from street signs on the U.S. Army Garrison at Fort Hamilton.
The Rev. Khader El-Yateem, a Democrat running in next month’s primary for the seat in the 43rd Council District (Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst), said the Army should rename “General Lee Avenue” and “Stonewall Jackson Drive” on the military installation located in Bay Ridge. Lee and Jackson were both stationed at Fort Hamilton in the 1840s.
“Memorializing Confederate generals has no place in 2017, and certainly not in my neighborhood,” El-Yateem said in a statement. “I fought to keep the Fort Hamilton Army Base open, and now I am fighting to keep it accountable.”