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Honor black history — don’t name NYS Thruway after Frederick Douglass

To the editor:

Dear senators, Assembly members and governor:

I write to you today with great concern about the proposition to rename the New York State Thruway after the great activist Frederick Douglass.

To give you a little more about me, I am a black man who lives in Rochester. My family owns the longest established African American owned business in the city, started in 1922 by my great-grandfather. The funeral home was founded on Clarissa Street, at the heart of a thriving black neighborhood. It was forced to relocate in the 1950’s when white leaders decided it would be a good idea to bulldoze the neighborhood, and build a highway through it. The funeral home was able to recover, but the neighborhood was not so lucky. Today, what continues to exist of Clarissa Street borders some of the poorest neighborhoods in Rochester. This was by design.

There are examples of thriving black neighborhoods being demolished in the name of highways across New York, and across the country. There is also documented research on the negative impact of highways on communities of color, contributing to increased air pollution, lower home values, and poorer access to good schools and fresh food. I spent a large part of my career working as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s regional director, working with the community to tear down the part of I-81 that currently divides the city of Syracuse. When we look at the history of highways, they were a tool of the white power structure to systematically destroy communities of color, and make it easier to segregate people. White people living in the suburbs could now drive in and out of the city for work, without ever having to invest in the city’s neighborhoods. We continue to live with the ramifications of these decisions, with segregated school districts and huge disparities in opportunity in cities across the state. We do not need to disgrace the legacy of Fredrick Douglass by naming a highway, a vehicle of black destruction, after him.

I am in full agreement that we need to name more public spaces after prominent black leaders, however this is an insensitive, and frankly an offensive, proposition. Given the current climate, it is more important than ever to be intentional and thoughtful about how black history is remembered.

A fitting tribute for Frederick Douglass would instead be policies that dismantle segregation and oppression of black people in New York state. If elected officials really cared, we could try renaming places like Monroe County, which was named after a slave owner, to Douglass County.

I strongly urge you to resist this proposition, and think carefully about how you can act in this moment to uplift black voices. Be thoughtful. We need better. We demand better.

Jarred Jones

Rochester

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