Weekend Edition on WAMC HD2

How do you honor historical figures?

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced this week the state will rename nine Garden State Parkway service areas after noted New Jerseyites: Judy Blume, Celia Cruz, Connie Chung, Larry Doby, James Gandolfini, Whitney Houston, Jon Bon Jovi, Toni Morrison, and, ladies and gentlemen, the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra.

They join a few other Jerseyites already enshrined along the New Jersey Turnpike, including Alexander Hamilton, who was a rest stop in Secaucus before he was a Broadway musical.

Master Sgt. Alvy Powell Jr. didn't enlist in the Army to be a soldier in combat — he was there to sing.

With the U.S. Army Chorus, Alvy performed for nine American presidents and at some of the country's most-decorated institutions. Alvy, now 65, retired in 2017 with a special distinction: the Army's oldest enlisted soldier.

He first joined the Army Chorus in 1983. But if not for his sister, Yvonne Powell, 71, he may have never pursued his career in the first place.

When President Biden gave a much-anticipated voting rights speech in Philadelphia this week, he called the fight against restrictive voting laws "the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War" and decried what he called a "21st century Jim Crow assault" on voting rights.

But a lot of people who turned out voters to elect Biden think he's failing them in the battle for voting rights so far.

The city of Charlottesville, Va., removed a statue of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on Saturday, toppling symbols that were at the center of the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017.

The statues will remain on city property until the city council decides what to do with them. Ten groups have expressed interest in the statues, according to a statement from the city.

One of the most adventurous classical ensembles, the Grammy Award-winning Attacca Quartet, has made its reputation with an eclectic musical palette – they've explored the string quartets of Haydn and Beethoven and premiered new pieces by contemporary composers.

When World War II started, Connie Doria Rocha was 16 and living with her mother and siblings in San Antonio.

Not long after, she found a way to join the war effort as a mechanic for the military.