ATLANTA – Hundreds of Girl Scouts are expected to gather in the Georgia Capitol, offering milk and cookies as they try to persuade lawmakers to get their founder's name affixed to a Savannah bridge that's currently named after a white segregationist.
Coinciding with the scouts' visit Tuesday, Rep. Ron Stephens, a Republican from Savannah, plans to introduce a bill to remove former Gov. Eugene Talmadge's name from the bridge and rename it after Juliette Gordon Low. She founded the Girl Scouts in the coastal city in 1912.
Talmadge, who served three terms between 1933 and 1942, defended whites-only primary elections and criticized the New Deal for offering blacks a hope of economic parity with whites.
Stephens himself has expressed doubts though that his colleagues would risk angering their conservative base in an election year.
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