A pair of parks previously named for Confederate generals will be rebranded for the second time since 2017 following a City Council meeting Monday in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Members of the Charlottesville City Council voted 4-1 during Monday’s meeting to rename both Emancipation Park, formerly Lee Park, and Justice Park, formerly Jackson Park, to Market Street Park and Court Square Park, respectively.
Wes Bellamy, a Democrat and the city’s former vice-mayor, was the only council member to vote against the name change, The Daily Progress newspaper reported.
“When we choose neutral or easy names, it allows us to not deal with some of the issues we’ve had,” Mr. Bellamy said, according to the newspaper.
“It doesn’t make us have to think critically about what’s going on,” he added. “But if that’s the will of the people, so be it.”
Previously named for Confederate Army Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, the parks were last renamed in June 2017 after Charlottesville City Council members unanimously voted 5-0 in favor of a name change — one of several recommendations made by a council-appointed commission convened to “provide Council with options for telling the full story of Charlottesville’s history of race and for changing the City’s narrative through our public spaces.”
Coupled with a separate vote to remove a statue of Lee from the former Lee Park, last year’s name change infamously led Jason Kessler, a local white nationalist activist, to organize a demonstration attended by thousands of participants and counterprotesters last August. Dubbed “Unite the Right,” the event attracted Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, and it quickly descended into violence.
The event ultimately culminated in the deaths of a counterprotester and two state troopers killed in a helicopter crash while monitoring the chaos.
Charlottesville began considering a new name for both parks after a nonpartisan community group, Unity Coalition, started an online petition last October seeking names that are “more acceptable to the community and in a way that is transparent and inclusive!”
Council member Kathy Galvin, a Democrat, said that some citizens told her that they believe a name change is warranted since the words “Emancipation” and “Justice” are contradicted by statues of Lee and Jackson that still stand in the parks, The Daily Progress reported.
“There’s no reason why the names can’t change again when people feel the parks really warrant it. But right now the statues are a big issue in those parks,” Ms. Galvin said Monday.
A survey concluded last month found that around 33 percent of Charlottesville residents preferred renaming Emancipation Park to Market Street Park, and that nearly 58 percent favored changing Justice Park to Court Square Park.
Mr. Kessler, 34, sued Charlottesville in March after the city denied his request to hold another rally on the former Lee Park on the first anniversary of “Unite the Right.” A hearing in the matter is currently scheduled for later this month in Charlottesville federal court.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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