ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - James Patton, who served on the city’s governing body in the 19th century, was a documented slave owner, holding up to 35 people at one time in bondage, according to historical records.
That makes Patton Avenue, Asheville’s main east-west artery, an easy candidate for a city effort to rename roadways bearing slave owner monikers.
But what about the narrow Lee Street North tucked into the city’s Heart of Chestnut Hills neighborhood? Was Lee the Stephens Lee who sold slaves “Lucy, Felix and Fanny,” as they were called in an 1862 Register of Deeds entry, to Jesse R. Weaver?
Or was Lee someone else - maybe an early resident of the small neighborhood north of downtown?
Lee North is one of more than 100 city roads researchers have determined could be named after slave owners - but also might not be. Researchers cross-referenced all street names with the names of people involved with buying and selling slaves.
“There are streets like Merrimon Avenue that are pretty obvious,” Asheville Development Services Director Ben Woody. That is because at least three members of the Merrimon family were documented slave owners.
“But I really don’t know with some of the others,” he said. They bear common names, such as King, Roberts or Miller. The history on some street’s names is spotty, and with multiple other city efforts happening around race and equity and his office busy with a construction boom, Woody said he and other staff members just don’t “have the capacity” right now to do in-depth research on each road.
The renaming effort was spurred by the death of Black Minneapolis resident George Floyd under the knee of a police officer, when thousands of protesters poured in Asheville’s streets. The group Black AVL Demands put out a list of what it said were needed changes.
Among them was the demand “that streets named after former slave owners also be replaced with names of historic local black leaders.”
Others included “divestment” from police and reparations for African American residents.
City Manager Debra Campbell adopted the demands, including the street renaming, putting them on her “30-60-90 Day Work Plan.”
At the Oct. 13 City Council meeting, Campbell told the elected officials, “We’re continuing to develop the next steps in terms of a community engagement opportunity.” Campbell did not return messages seeking comment Oct. 23.
The task has fallen to the volunteer African American Heritage Committee and Woody, who last met July 9. Committee members expressed the desire to focus first on some other equity initiatives. Those have included restructuring public safety and the decision over what to do with Asheville’s most prominent historical marker, the Vance Monument which officials have said will be taken down or repurposed because of the former governor’s support of the Confederacy.
The chair and vice chair of the heritage committee did not return messages seeking comment, but Woody said a restart on street renaming will likely come after a recommendation is made on the monument in late November.
One of the first steps will be deciding what to do with the 127 streets.
One idea, the development services director said, is to appeal to residents.
“I think that is an interesting place for the community to land. I think there are people who are really interested in history and know a lot more than I know. I think that is an opportunity.”
Asheville historian Sasha Mitchell said one answer might be to rename streets after prominent Black residents with the same name.
Miller street, for example could be renamed after James Vester Miller, who was born into slavery, but became a prominent brick mason and contractor whose projects included Mount Zion Baptist Church and the Asheville Municipal Building where police and fire departments are headquartered.
“That’s an easy way, and it doesn’t cost any money,” said Mitchell, who is from New Jersey but traces her Black ancestors to a great-great grandfather in Asheville.
But if the street occupies a neighborhood away from where the historic person lived and worked, it might not make sense, she said. Mitchell also said there might be cases where researching some of the smaller streets is not worth the city’s time.
“It is reasonable for people to say, ’I don’t want to keep celebrating people” who were prominent slave owners or Confederate sympathizers, she said.
“But it might not be the thing anyone should be putting all their resources into. The other demands of Black AVL Demands are far more important for improving the lives of Black people.”
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