The Latest: Florida city votes to remove Confederate names

The Latest on protests and debate about Confederate symbols around the U.S. (all times local):

11:35 p.m.

The city commission of a suburb in Florida has voted to erase the names of Robert E. Lee and two other Confederate generals from the city’s streets.

The Hollywood City Commission voted 5-1 late Wednesday to remove the names of Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Bell Hood from residential streets that hopscotch through the Fort Lauderdale suburb.

Mayor Josh Levy said he voted for the change because it will erase symbols of bigotry and oppression. The streets will be renamed later.

Commissioner Peter Hernandez walked out before the vote but said he opposed the change because it will lead to other streets being renamed.

More than 200 supporters and opponents had packed the commission chambers and the adjoining lobby.

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6:45 p.m.

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has called on leaders in the Florida community of Hollywood to strip the names of three Confederate generals from its streets.

The Fort Lauderdale Democrat told the Hollywood City Commission on Wednesday that getting rid of the names of Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Bell Hood won’t fix racial injustice, but it is a just step.

The commission is expected to vote on the proposed changes later Wednesday. Supporters and opponents packed the commission chambers and its lobby.

The commission gave preliminary approval to the change by a 5-2 vote last month. Change supporters say the city should not honor military officers who fought against the U.S. to preserve slavery. Opponents say the three generals were honorable men who fought bravely and that removing their names would be erasing history.

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6 p.m.

The mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, is apologizing for a statement he issued about the city’s response to a white nationalist rally that he says “impugned” the reputation of the city manager and police chief.

Mike Signer addressed reporters after an hourslong City Council meeting Wednesday. He apologized for the statement posted on Facebook, as well as other actions and communications, saying he had “overstepped” the bounds of his role.

Signer’s Facebook post asserted he’d been largely shut out of security preparations for the Aug. 12 rally, which descended into violence. One person was killed when a car plowed into a group protesting against the event.

The City Council said in a statement that it had accepted Signer’s apology and did not ask for his resignation.

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3:30 p.m.

The University of North Carolina has rejected a request by white nationalist Richard Spencer to speak on its flagship campus at Chapel Hill.

Spencer is a leader of the white nationalist movement and attended demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, that erupted into deadly violence in mid-August.

Chancellor Carol Folt wrote to the campus community Wednesday that she declined a request for Spencer’s National Policy Institute to rent space so he could speak. The statement didn’t indicate when Spencer wanted to speak, but Folt said she discussed the public safety risks with state and local police.

In the aftermath of Charlottesville, hundreds gathered last week for a largely peaceful rally at the Chapel Hill campus to demand removal of a Confederate soldier’s statue there. Separately, protesters also toppled a Confederate statue in nearby Durham.

The University of Florida recently denied a request for Spencer to speak there.

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2:15 p.m.

A group of black lawmakers, pastors and advocacy groups have called for the removal of a Jefferson Davis statue in the Kentucky Capitol.

The Capitol Rotunda includes five statues of famous Kentuckians. They include former President Abraham Lincoln and Davis, the only president of the Confederacy.

The Kentucky chapter of the NAACP and others have twice tried before to have the statue removed, but were unsuccessful. The Kentucky Historic Properties Advisory Commission governs the statues. Its members are appointed by the governor.

Democratic State Rep. Reginald Meeks says it’s time to “put aside the politics of the past” and remove the statue. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, has said the statue is an important reminder of the state’s history.

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1:40 p.m.

Police in the city of Hollywood have arrested a pro-Confederacy protester after he appeared to charge toward another group of demonstrators ahead of a vote on whether to strip the names of three Confederate generals from local streets.

Hollywood police jumped on 21-year-old Chris Tedino of Miami Wednesday afternoon as he took steps toward the protesters. He was carrying a Confederate flag.

Officers quickly wrestled Tedino to the ground, then carried him away from the area in front of the city hall, where commissioners are expected to vote later Wednesday afternoon. A crowd of about 100 was in the area, and Tedino was the lone pro-Confederate supporter.

It could not be immediately determined what charges he could face.

Hollywood is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale and commissioners there gave preliminary approval last month to renaming streets named after Confederates Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Bell Hood.

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10:11 a.m.

A Florida suburb is poised to remove the names of three Confederate generals from its streets.

The city commission in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Hollywood is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to rename streets named after Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Bell Hood. Forrest was a founder of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War.

The commission gave preliminary approval to the change by a 5-2 vote last month.

Change supporters say the city should not honor military officers who fought against the United States to preserve slavery.

Opponents say the three were honorable men who fought bravely and that removing their names would be erasing history.

Several Southern cities have removed or are considering removing statues honoring Confederate leaders.