Flowery Branch city officials announced Thursday that the long discussed Jim Crow Road off McEver Road is no more.
After years of debate, petitions and questions, the city chose to change their portion of the roadway to "G.C. Crow Road." The name change was approved July 2 and the signs were installed Thursday.
The Jim Crow the road was named after was not the racist caricature depicting a Black person, nor did it reference the nickname for segregation laws in the 1950s and 1960s. However, those just passing through or who didn't live in the area didn't know who the Jim Crow of Flowery Branch was at all.
The local Jim Crow, or Glennon C. Crow, as he was named at birth, was a small town philanthropist and farmer, who aided his neighbors during the Great Depression and played a key role in getting running water and pavement for the street he, his kin and his neighbors shared - hence, Jim Crow Road.
Glennon didn't seem to fit, so when family members started calling him Jimmy and Jim, it stuck. Grandson Randy Crow spoke at a city council meeting in early July and said he acknowledged how important it was to change the sign, if not because of the tension it created, but because his grandfather would understand the need for the change.
However, the change from Jim Crow Road to G.C. Crow Road is not over, as the majority of the road is in Hall County's jurisdiction. But, signage directly facing the highly traveled McEver Road now bear the new signs.
