Parks board votes to rename three Kansas City streets to honor Martin Luther King Jr.
Kansas City will once again have a stretch of road named to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to rename about 5 miles of boulevard system under its control to memorialize the late civil rights leader, from Brookside Boulevard on the west to Interstate 435 on the east.
The winding stretch of continuous roadway now goes by three different names: Volker Boulevard, Swope Parkway and Blue Parkway. Many drivers don’t notice when one bleeds into another. The change would erase that confusion and relieve Kansas City of its status as one of the few large cities without a major street named after King.
Parks board commissioner Chris Goode said after the vote that he was “ecstatic.”
Board chairman Jack Holland said that in addition to King, “it also honors the many Kansas Citians who were involved in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.”
Parks and recreation director Teresa Rynard called it “a great day for the community.”
Despite the change, Swope Parkway would retain its name south of where it now connects with Blue Parkway and continues toward Swope Park and its terminus at 67th Street.
The board passed a resolution recommending the City Council change to the MLK name on portions of Blue Parkway not under the department’s jurisdiction. It also recommended renaming Oak Street from 45th to 52nd streets to honor the late Kansas City philanthropist William Volker.
It’s not the first time Kansas City has had a street named after King, but that earlier change was short lived. In 2018, a group of ministers from the East Side approached previous members of the parks board about renaming The Paseo.
When the ministers were rebuffed, the City Council overruled the board, voting 8-4 in January 2019 to rename The Paseo after King and began replacing signs.
But some residents along that boulevard objected to not being consulted and mounted a campaign to undo the change, arguing that The Paseo name is a significant part of Kansas City’s history.
The Paseo, named for Paseo De La Reforma in Mexico City, was designed in the late 19th century by landscape architect George Kessler as part of the city’s original parks and boulevard system. A portion was added to the National Register of Historic Places, along with parks and boulevards in Midtown and the Historic Northeast.
Other critics argued that an east-west thoroughfare connecting predominantly Black and white areas of the city would be more fitting than the north-south Paseo through parts of town that are predominantly Black.
In November 2019, Kansas City voters overwhelmingly decided to remove King’s name from The Paseo and restore the street’s name.
After the defeat, Mayor Quinton Lucas directed the board of commissioners to gather ideas from the public on how to honor King’s legacy.
Last summer, the board met with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City and identified the 5-mile stretch along Brush Creek. The boulevard intersects with Troost Avenue, The Paseo and Prospect Avenue, and passes by the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Center, the Boys and Girls Club and Martin Luther King Jr. Square Park.
On Tuesday, Lucas said the road would be one of the most beautiful MLK boulevards in the country and promised to maintain and improve it.
