The Girl Scouts of America are making a determined effort to change the name of a bridge in Savannah, Georgia. The bridge was named for Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge who served in the 1930’s and 40’s. Talmadge espoused racism; as Wikipedia documents, “He was (a) racial demagogue who presided over a Klan -ridden regime.” (Citation omitted.)

The bridge, located on U.S Highway 17 at the Georgia-South Carolina state line, was originally built in the 1950s. A very modern-looking replacement was erected in 1991. While there have long been efforts to rename the bridge because of Talmadge’s horrible race record, those attempts have gone nowhere.

Enter the Girl Scouts, whose founder, Juliette Gordon Low, was born in Savannah. As a Jalopnik blog post by Erik Shilling reports, Low had some issues about race as well but historically, the Girl Scouts as an organization worked to desegregate in the South long before other organizations; in fact, Dr. King called the Girl Scouts “a force for desegregation.”

Earlier this month, the Girl Scouts lobbied legislators at the Georgia statehouse with cookies (it’s that time of year for wonderful their wonderful cookies) in their renaming effort. As it turns out, the current bridge was never officially commemorated with Talmadge’s name, which may be an important technicality in favor of the Girl Scouts. So far, more than 50 Georgia legislators are on board to rename the bridge for Low; more are needed for this to happen.

Stay tuned for more on this story. Regardless of outcome, this is proof that our kids think way differently than “seniors” on how our country needs to be. This gives me such hope!