YIR: Legislators Vow to Rename Cynthia McKinney Parkway
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YIR: Legislators Vow to Rename Cynthia McKinney Parkway

July 2021: The latest controversy involving the former Democratic congresswoman has prompted a move to strip her name from highways.

By Dave Schechter December 22, 2021, 2:09 pm Edit

Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Cynthia McKinney is part of Memorial Drive, which runs from Stone Mountain to downtown Atlanta.
Cynthia McKinney is part of Memorial Drive, which runs from Stone Mountain to downtown Atlanta.

When the General Assembly reconvenes in January 2022, an effort will be made to remove Cynthia McKinney’s name from Georgia roadways.

In June, the former six-term Democratic congresswoman posted an image of the final piece being added to a puzzle that showed smoke billowing from the World Trade Center towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

McKinney’s comment read: “The Final Piece of the Puzzle …”

The puzzle pieces read: “Zionists did it.”

In July, Democratic Rep. Mike Wilensky, the lone Jewish member of the General Assembly, said that when the legislature meets, he and Republican Sen. Cecil Terrell “Butch” Miller will make their effort part of a larger bill dealing with the naming and renaming of roadways.

Wilensky said that whatever name is chosen, “it won’t be anything partisan.”

As for McKinney’s remark, Wilensky said, “This isn’t, ‘Oh, it could be interpreted as anti-Semitism.’ On a level of one to 10 of anti-Semitism, this is an 11, as horrible as it could be.”

The Cynthia McKinney Parkway covers state Highway 154 from Candler Road to state Highway 10 in DeKalb County and a portion of Highway 10 from its intersection with Highway 154 to U.S. Highway 78 in DeKalb County.

McKinney was elected in 1992 to represent Georgia’s 11th district. She was re-elected in 1994, but after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the district’s borders to be unconstitutional, McKinney was elected in 1996 to represent the newly drawn 4th district. She was re-elected in 1998 and 2000, before losing in the 2002 Democratic primary. McKinney won the 4th district seat again in 2004 but was defeated by Hank Johnson in the 2006 Democratic primary. She was the Green Party’s 2008 presidential candidate.

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