Kansas votes to remove Martin Luther King's name from one of city's most historic roads
Civil rights icon Dr Martin Luther King’s name will be removed from one of Kansas City's main roads after residents voted overwhelmingly to replace it.
The 10-mile boulevard on the Missourian city's mostly black east side has been the subject of fierce debate since officials opted for the name change in January.
The U-turn result comes less than a year after the city council approved plans to rename The Paseo to The Paseo for King, in honour of the civil rights leader.
Unofficial results showed 70 per cent of the vote in favour of removing King’s name from the boulevard, with just over 30 per cent voting to retain it.
Campaign group "Save the Paseo" presented a petition in April with more than 2,800 signatures, calling for a public vote on the issue.
Supporters of name change point out that Kansas City is one of the largest in the US not to have a street named after the Dr King and have accused opponents of being racist.
Those in favour of the original name, meanwhile, say city leaders pushed the change through without following proper procedures, while ignoring the proper procedures for doing so.
Members of the "Save the Paseo" group staged a silent protest at a get-out-the-vote rally at a black church for people wanting to keep the King name.
They walked into the Paseo Baptist Church and stood along its two aisles.
The protesters stood silently and did not react to several speakers that accused them of being disrespectful in a church but they also refused requests from preachers to sit down.
Organiser Tim Smith said it was designed to force the black Christian leaders who had portrayed the Save the Paseo group as racist to "say it to our faces."
He added: "If tonight, someone wants to characterise what we did as hostile, violent, or uncivil, it's a mischaracterisation of what happened. We didn't say anything, we didn't do anything, we just stood."
Reverend Vernon Howard, president of the Kansas City chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said the King street sign is a powerful symbol for everyone but particularly for black children.
He said: "I think that only if you are a black child growing up in the inner city lacking the kind of resources, lacking the kinds of images and models for mentoring, modeling, vocation and career, can you actually understand what that name on that sign can mean to a child in this community.
"What people will wonder in their minds and hearts is why and how something so good, uplifting and edifying, how can something like that be taken away?"
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