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From Ford to Porsche, council committee approves street name change

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Oct 9, 2012

With the upcoming construction of a new $100 million state-of-the-art North American headquarters for Porsche, Atlanta’s City Utilities Committee has authorized the renaming of Henry Ford, II Avenue/South Central Avenue to Porsche Avenue.

The original proposal was to change the name to Ferdinand Porsche Avenue, after the founder of the auto company. But the council decided to allow the name to be changed to the company’s name, instead of the founder to address concerns about Ferdinand Porsche’s personal and political life.

It is widely acknowledged that Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian-German automotive engineer, who also created the Volkswagen Beetle and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, had close ties to Nazi Party.

As part of the renaming, the committee has required that the auto company reach out the Anti-Defamation League and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

The full council will vote on the change next week.

About the Author

Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.

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