Martin Luther King Jr. is overdue for a KC tribute, and this time the city hopes to avoid screwing it up
Two years after attempting to rename The Paseo after Martin Luther King Jr., Kansas City is moving forward with plans to rename a different road after King this year. // Image courtesy of thekingcenter.org
Two years ago, the Kansas City Council voted to fix the absence of a street named after Martin Luther King Jr. Their approved solution was to rename 10-mile road The Paseo after King, a choice met with heavy opposition and later reversed.
Now, as Kansas City remains one of the only large cities in the country without a street or building named in honor of King, a chance to change this might once again be in the city’s future.
City officials are discussing a possible rename of a road along the southern edge of the Plaza toward Blue Parkway and Elmwood Avenue. The Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board of Directors hopes to vote on the change this spring and complete it by the middle of the year. After direction from Mayor Quinton Lucas, city staff have gathered over 400 ideas for possible renaming opportunities alongside this one.
In a virtual meeting for public input Monday, Kansas City resident Jerome Walker expressed frustration that the city has yet to move forward with renaming a road in King’s honor. During his pre-pandemic travels, he says, it’s what people knew Kansas City for.
“Every city I go to I get tired of people saying, ‘You live in that big city and they don’t have a Martin Luther King Boulevard, and he’s been dead for over 50 years?’” he says.
This plan follows decisions made this past summer to remove the names of racist figures from streets and monuments in the city. In the midst of local and national protests after the death of George Floyd, the summer posed an especially timely opportunity to replace a removed name with King’s name.
That opportunity wasn’t taken, but this could be Kansas City’s second chance to honor King without actively taking history and honor away from communities of color.
