In a unanimous vote during the Missouri City City Council’s consent agenda April 18, the council approved the final readings of two ordinances that renamed Confederate Court as Prosperity Court and Confederate South Drive as Prosperity South Drive.
The two streets are located in the Vicksburg subdivision, which contains other streets that bear names of Confederate generals, including Bedford Forrest Court, which shares a name with Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
The approval comes after residents submitted applications to the city to rename the two streets; the request for Confederate Court came March 4, while the request for Confederate South Drive came March 10, according to city documents.
“We had over 90% of families in support of this name change on our street,” said resident Marsha Willis, the applicant for Confederate Court, during the council’s April 4 meeting. “The degradation and the embarrassment will finally come to an end with your vote. We appreciate it, and we’re excited to celebrate.”
This is not the first time the City Council has approved renaming Missouri City streets. On June 21, 2021, the council approved renaming Confederate Drive as Prosperity Drive.
That approval came on the heels of the City Council passing changes to the city’s street-naming policies in July and August 2020, which reduced the percentage of signatures required to rename a city street from 90% down to 70%.
As of March, the cost to implement the street name change would be $633.51 for the residents for one intersection-control sign at Confederate Court and Truesdale Drive. The cost for Confederate South Drive, meanwhile, was estimated at $335 for one intersection-control sign at Confederate South Drive and Truesdale Drive, according to agenda documents.
However, U.S. Rep. Al Green, who represents Texas’ 9th Congressional District, which includes most of Missouri City, is covering the costs of the street name changes, said Jeffrey Boney, Missouri City mayor pro tem.
“I wanted to thank the residents who stepped up to the plate to come together to ensure that this name change took place,” Boney said.
