Confederacy report recommends renaming Austin, Texas

The report by the city’s Equity Office also identifies numerous historical Confederacy markers on city-owned property that could be targeted for removal, including one memorializing the Confederate States of America.

The removal or proposed removal of Confederate statues in several cities, including Charlottesville, Virginia, has provided the background theme for several neo-Confederate, militia and Klan-style groups who have held assorted rallies — some of them violent and deadly.

In Austin, the new report also recommends immediately renaming seven city streets and consideration of renaming 10 others named for William Barton, the “Daniel Boone of Texas,” who was a slave owner, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

The capital city is named for Stephen F. Austin, regarded as the “father of Texas” who “carved out the early outlines” of the state as one of his many accomplishments, the newspaper report says.

Austin also opposed an attempt by Mexico to ban slavery in the province of Texas and said if slaves were freed, they would turn into “vagabonds, a nuisance and a menace,” the newspaper reports.

For that reason, the city’s Equity Office suggested renaming the city. Such a change apparently would require an election because the name “Austin would have to be struck from the city charter and replaced,” the newspaper reports.

The report also suggested immediately renaming these streets because of their relationship to the Confederacy: Littlefield Street; Tom Green Street; Sneed Cove; Reagan Hill Drive; Dixie Drive; Confederate Avenue and Plantation Road.

The cost of renaming those streets is estimated at just under $6,000, according to the report.

Earlier this year, the city of Austin renamed Robert E. Lee Road, which is now Azie Morton Road. Jeff Davis Avenue was changed to William Holland Avenue.

The Austin newspaper report says a majority of residents living on those two streets opposed the name changes, accusing the city “of whitewashing history.”

The report acknowledged the likelihood of opposition to its recommendations, including pushback from those who say name changes could impinge historical preservation.

“What’s next and where do we stop?” the report asks.

The city report says societal values “are fluid, and they can be and are different today compared to when our city made decisions to name and/or place these Confederate symbols in our community.”

“It is also important to acknowledge that nearly all monuments to the Confederacy and its leaders were erected without a true democratic process,” the report concludes. “People of color often had no voice and no opportunity to raise concerns about the city’s decision to honor Confederate leaders.”

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