Park District moves to rename Douglas Park, likely for Frederick Douglass
The Chicago Park District Board voted Wednesday to initiate the process to rename Stephen A. Douglas Park on the city’s West Side, likely for Frederick Douglass.
The unprecedented decision comes after a group of students at Village Leadership Academy spent years campaigning to rename the 218-acre West Side park for former slave and renowned orator and abolitionist Douglass rather than Douglas, a U.S. senator from Illinois who lost the 1860 presidential election to Abraham Lincoln.
“We have not done this before,” said Park board president Avis LaVelle. “We have renamed parks named with numbers, we have renamed parks named for trees and flowers, but we have not ever stripped the name of a historical figure from a park, and replaced it with someone else.”
The park’s name will not officially be dropped until September, after a 45-day period for public input ends. The board will then name the park after someone else. And although a formal decision has not been made, the park will most likely be renamed after Douglass.
“This community has made its voice loud and clear,” LaVelle said.
Douglas was an esteemed politician and held a number of local political posts, including state’s attorney, congressman, Illinois Supreme Court justice and secretary of state. He is also credited with helping bring the Illinois Central Railroad to Chicago.
In the mid-1800s, however, Douglas advocated that voters should decide the legality of slavery rather than abolish it. Douglas also profited from his wife’s ownership of a Mississippi slave plantation.
Two years ago, Village Leadership Academy students informally presented the renaming idea to the Park District Board. Since then, the students have taken their crusade to the streets, campaigning in parks and subway stations to drum up more support.
The students formally submitted a proposal to the board in December that included at least 4,000 signatures, said Jennifer Pagan, a teacher who has helped the students during their campaign.
The students made another plea to the park board during a February meeting.
“We’re tired of being ignored and not taken seriously,” Aryn Peterson, a seventh grade student at Village Leadership Academy, told board members in February.
Several signs in the park already have been changed to “Douglass Park” by someone painting an extra “S” on them.
The board’s decision comes during a national resurgence of opposition against statues and symbols deemed racist, sparked mainly by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
In Chicago, disputes over a controversial statue have turned violent in recent days. Police and protesters clashed Friday evening near the Christopher Columbus Statue in Grant Park when a rally in support of Black and Indigenous people turned chaotic after people began throwing frozen water bottles, cans, fireworks and other projectiles at police.
Earlier this month, the University of Chicago removed two displays honoring Douglas on the university’s campus.
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