[lbo-talk] Racial Economics of Renaming Streets for MartinLutherKing, Jr.

[Liza Featherstone]

Hey, no endorsement of Marcus Garvey himself intended! (And thanks to
MichaeL Pug for the like to the Mussolini connection - actually I knew
that.) I'd rather live near Paul Robeson or Ella Baker Blvd, obviously. But
MC is an important figure in American history. The intersecting streets in
that neighborhood are all named after signers of the Declaration of
Independence - seriously - so a visual reminder that there is more to US
history than white men must have seemed particularly important.

Liza


> From: "Grant Lee" <grantlee at iinet.net.au>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 10:45:39 +0800
> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Racial Economics of Renaming Streets for
> MartinLutherKing, Jr.
> 
> Liza said:
> 
>> Sure it's confusing when street names change -- I used to live near Marcus
> Garvey
>> Blvd in Brooklyn, and lots of maps still had the old name, and of course
> it
>> was annoying -- but in this case people should deal with it because
>> it's...can we still use this word, I hope so...Progress. (A city full of
>> streets and parks named only after white people sends the clear message
> that
>> whites are the only people whose history is worthy of public note.)
> 
> I would be annoyed if my street was renamed after a crook like
> Garvey..."Frantz Fanon Boulevard" has a much better ring to it ;-)
> 
> In the late 1980s, there was an almost-successful campaign to rename a
> street in Canberra which housed the South African Embassy, "Nelson Mandela
> Street", thereby forcing the apartheiders to recieve mail bearing the name
> of their most famous political prisoner. The campaign foundered for the
> usual reasons, probably including some latent racism.
> 
> Grant.
> 
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