Local residents are holding a meeting Saturday to consider changing the name of Hopkins Street in New Iberia.

A group of local residents is meeting Saturday to discuss preliminary efforts to change the name of Hopkins Street.

West End residents and other concerned residents will be participating in an event put on by A New Chapter Push to be discussing the issue. The town hall meeting will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center at West End Park.

Organizer Cornelius Joseph said the town hall will discuss changing the name of Hopkins Street to J. Leo Hardy Memorial Highway.

Hardy was the first Iberia Parish NAACP president at the time of the violent 1944 expulsion of black doctors and the NAACP leadership from New Iberia, according to Joseph.

“We’ve gotten a lot of support for it so far,” Joseph said Thursday. “There were only two people who disagreed with the name change.”

Joseph said if an effort were to proceed, it would have to go before the New Iberia City Council and eventually reach the Louisiana legislature.

Hopkins Street is a prominent business avenue in the West End, and plays host to the Brown Sugar Music Festival annually which highlights local artists and culture.

Several businesses also are located on the street. Joseph said proceeding with a name change would need the support of local business owners on the street who would have to change the street name in their address.