After weeks of voting and decades of activism, a neighborhood named after a former Denver mayor and KKK member will finally be rebranded.
Central Park will soon become the new neighborhood name, an ode to the green space that runs through town, Amanda Allshouse, the president of the board of Stapleton United Neighbors, announced Saturday.
The name beat out Skyview in the final round of voting by community members, earning 63% of the more than 5,800 votes cast.
“It’s our sincere hope that each one of us … treat this moment with fresh eyes and a common goal to treat each other with kindness, compassion and respect,” Allshouse said.
Each neighborhood and city entity will now be able to adopt the new name under its own bylaws and procedures. Mayor Michael Hancock and the neighborhood’s developers have already indicated support for changing the name, and the city previously said it has already begun scrubbing Stapleton from its internal systems.
The finalists were chosen after several rounds of voting from community members, which whittled down an initial list of over 80 names. The options ranged from names honoring Black or indigenous historical figures — such as Dr. Joseph H.P. Westbrook, a Black man who infiltrated the KKK — to those paying homage to the site of Denver’s former airport, such as Skyview or Concourse.
Saturday’s announcement is the culmination of decades of efforts by Denver’s African American community and allied activists, who were offended by the neighborhood name, which honored Benjamin Stapleton, the former mayor and Klansman who held office during the height of the KKK’s power here 100 years ago.
There were multiple unsuccessful votes over the years to change the name — including one in 2019 — but the tide turned in May after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, a Black man, setting off a national reckoning on racism that touched everything from police brutality to the names of parks, mountains, streets and neighborhoods that honored problematic figures of America’s past.
Two weeks after thousands of people flooded Denver’s streets to demand change in the wake of Floyd’s death, Stapleton’s neighborhood group announced it would seek to remove the name.
JuJu Nkrumah has been fighting to change the neighborhood’s name since the 1990s, before people had even moved into the houses being built on the site Denver’s former airport. She long avoided going to the area, viewing the name as a slap in the face to Black people like her.
“I give thanks and appreciation to my ancestors,” Nkrumah said Friday. “I’m so sorry they had to live with that in their face for so long. It’s finally going to be over.”
Nkrumah said she would have preferred the community go with other options for the names, calling Central Park and Skyview “safe,” but said she had no problem with either finalist.
Liz Stalnaker, board chair of the Rename St*pleton For All group that has pushed to change the name for years, said some of the members were a little disappointed the new name didn’t honor a Black and indigenous figure, but that the vote still achieved the group’s goal: To remove the name of a Klansman from public places.
“It really is a meaningful first step,” she said. “But it’s only the first step of a much longer journey in building a neighborhood or community that lives up to its own aspirations.”
Invoking the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nkrumah asked, “Where do we go from here?”
Whether that’s building more low-income housing or naming a pool after a Black historical figure, the community can still move forward, she said.
“The new name represents an idea that we can change,” Nkrumah said. “We can be better.”
"really" - Google News
August 02, 2020 at 12:24AM
https://ift.tt/2XhFgbC
Stapleton residents vote “Central Park” as new name — “It really is a meaningful first step” - The Denver Post
"really" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3b3YJ3H
https://ift.tt/35qAk7d
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Stapleton residents vote “Central Park” as new name — “It really is a meaningful first step” - The Denver Post"
Post a Comment