Lee Circle would become Leah Chase Circle, giving the late chef and civil rights activist the place of public honor where the Confederate general's statue once presided over New Orleans, under preliminary recommendations put forward Tuesday by a City Council commission that offered up new names for almost three dozen streets and other locations associated with white supremacy.
The recommendations, which also include changing the name of Robert E. Lee Boulevard to honor musician Allen Toussaint and renaming Tulane Avenue for Mardi Gras Indian chief Allison “Tootie” Montana, mark the end of the first phase of a lengthy official review of street and place names throughout the city. The process was put in place by the City Council over the summer, as racial justice protests erupted throughout the country, with the aim of eliminating much of the city’s Confederate iconography in a single swoop.