Melvin Hazen advocated to destroy the Black neighborhood of Reno Metropolis to develop what’s now Fort Reno Park.
A nature park and path within the northwest part of Washington DC will not bear the identify of Melvin Hazena former metropolis commissioner who pushed for the destruction of a Black neighborhood to clear area for park growth, the Nationwide Park Service has introduced.
As reported by The Washington Submit, Hazen grew to become a surveyor of DC’s surrounding woodlands in 1908, later being appointed to the town’s Board of Commissioners. In ensuing years, he urged state officers to demolish houses in a Black neighborhood.
“Melvin Hazen was a number one drive within the systematic dismantling of Reno Metropolis in Northwest Washington in the course of the Nineteen Thirties and Nineteen Forties. As president of the District of Columbia Board of Commissioners from 1933 to 1941, Melvin Hazen was instrumental in displacing Black residents from this space to create what’s now Fort Reno Park, ”the Nationwide Park Service wrote in a press launch, in accordance with DCist.
The Mail reviews that Reservation 630, which is the woodland’s quantity within the park service system, would be the park’s new title for now as solely Congress has authority to rename it, in accordance with the service’s assertion.
An earlier report from the Mail recounts Hazen’s statements to US senators throughout a listening to in 1926 wherein Hazen described Reno Metropolis as an “ill-devised, ill-shaped subdivision which you can not do something with until you simply wipe it off.”
Hazen reportedly added that the neighborhood was occupied “principally by coloured of us” who he did “not significantly” seek the advice of about his demolition plans.
In 2020, an area neighborhood fee amplified calls to take away Hazen’s identify by passing a decision urging motion from the Nationwide Park Service. Eleanor Holmes Nortonwho represents DC as a delegate in Congress amplified that request final 12 months, in accordance with DCist.
“As President of the DC Board of Commissioners, Hazen selected to wield his energy by selling segregation, prioritizing all-white communities and marginalizing African-American residents,” Norton mentioned in a press release to DCist.
“Labeling the bulk African-American neighborhood in Reno Metropolis a ‘blight’ that was out of ‘concord with the final plan for the District,’ Hazen orchestrated the demolition of this neighborhood, pushing African-American households out of the houses they owned within the District. The removing of his identify from Rock Creek Park is lengthy overdue, ”she added.
The Mail reported that DC historian Neil Flanagan supplied a lot of the knowledge utilized by advocates pushing to take away Hazen’s identify. In 2017, Flanagan revealed an article within the Washington Metropolis Paper in regards to the once-thriving Black neighborhood that was displaced for park growth.
Flanagan informed DCist: “It’s a narrative that explains loads about why DC seems the best way it does. Why Black folks dwell on one aspect of Rock Creek Park and why white folks dwell on the opposite. ”
In an e-mail to the MailFlanagan wrote that along with eradicating Hazen’s identify from the park, work should proceed with “a scientific, historian-led evaluation of the town’s namesakes” to find different metropolis leaders who might have facilitated the destruction of Reno Metropolis.
The identify change for Reservation 630 l is amongst a number of efforts within the DC area to take down or alter landmarks memorializing Confederates and segregationists, the Mail reviews.
In 2020, native residents voted to take away a marker honoring former Nevada senator Francis G. Newlands, who pushed to abolish voting rights for African American males and limit US immigration to whites solely. In January of this 12 months, Maryland senators launched a invoice to take away Newland’s identify from a fountain close to the DC-Maryland border.
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