Status: Resolved

Resolved: January 20th, 2020

Venable Street is named after former Stone Mountain mayor James Venable, who organized and was the Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the Klan. According to residents, Venable led marches and held rallies in Shermantown from the 1960s through 1980s promoting racial hatred and intolerance, inciting fear in the community.

"It's unclear exactly when the street was named, and whether it was named after a specific member of the Venable family. Brothers William and Samuel Venable previously owned Stone Mountain, which they used as a granite quarry. They gave the Klan permission to meet at the mountain, where the group staged a cross burning and "rebirth" in 1915, according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution archives. When the Venables sold the property to the state in the 1950s, it was designated to become a memorial to the Confederacy.

Decades later, James Venable became the Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the Klan for nearly 25 years — a fact noted in his obituary that ran in The New York Times. He was also a mayor of Stone Mountain, using the nearby land for annual Klan rallies, newspaper stories stated." - wsbtv - October 21, 2019

"King Day ceremony for Stone Mountain street renaming

The City of Stone Mountain will celebrate the renaming of a street in the city's Shermantown neighborhood on the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday on Monday.

A commemorative service is planned at the St. Paul AME Church, 821 3rd St., at 10 a.m.

After the service, there will be a march from the church for the unveiling of the street sign for Eva Mamie Lane, replacing the former Venable St. name. After the unveiling, a ceremony will be held to ring the Freedom Bell on the city's Main St." - PRISM DeKalb - January 14, 2020