Tri-Citians want Confederate general’s name removed. ‘No place...for racism and hatred’

An effort to rename Lee Boulevard has been renewed in light of the Black Lives Matter rallies calling for racial justice and equality that have swept the nation.

An online petition tells the Richland City Council that the prominent road “is a symbol of white supremacy and racism, and it needs to be changed.”

“(We) demand that Lee Boulevard be renamed to honor a person of color that has fought for civil rights in our nation. There is no place in our community for symbols of racism and hatred,” wrote Tyler Hogg of Kennewick. “Richland City Council, it’s time to stand up and do what’s right for people of color in the Tri-Cities.”

Hogg started the Change.org petition, which received more than 1,700 signatures by Tuesday.

Mayor Ryan Lukson told the Herald that people also have been contacting him with their concerns.

While the street name is not on the council’s agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, he said the council may discuss it.

Civil War general

Tucked on a corner of Lee Boulevard, across from Richland High School, is a sign explaining who the street was named for — Robert E. Lee, the famous general who sided with the South in the Civil War.

Richland is “just about as far away from the South as you can get in the United States,” said Hogg, and yet the city pays tribute to the confederate general.

He notes that the Confederacy fought to preserve and expand slavery in this country, and its symbols have long been tied to extreme racial violence.

“Confederate symbols are not about heritage or history, no, Confederate symbols are about hate,” Hogg wrote. “Robert E. Lee was a Confederate General and the only place his name belongs is in museums and history books, not on our street signs.”

Those who left comments on the petition agreed intensely with Hogg.

“I feel disrespected by the community of which I live and pay taxes in, do business in, when it wants to honor a treasonous bigot whom claimed ownership over my ancestors through enslavement, rape, horrific, beatings, hanging, and went to war, ”The Civil War,” to defend just that. The way of life of enslavement of Black Citizens, human beings, people,” wrote Clarence Hill III.

Scott Butner wrote that we cannot choose what’s in the past, but we have a choice of what places, names and dates to commemorate and there are plenty of real heroes on that list.

“Richland was a Sundown Town, and the tendrils of that overt cultural and structural racism continue to impact the community today,” wrote Tessa Hamilton of Kennewick. “Having a street named after a heralded leader of a war over slavery is racist and it tells our residents of color just who the rest of us stand with.”

Issue raised in 2017

Three years ago, Richland scientist Martin McBriarty made similar arguments when he tried to convince the city to rename the street and take down the marker.

That effort came in the wake of the racially charged violence in Charlottesville.

Still, at the time, the issue drew hundreds of sharply divided commenters on Facebook.

The Manhattan Engineering District and Army Corps of Engineers named Richland’s streets after Army officers when the town came to life in the early 1940s. Lee was a longtime Army engineer before he sided with the Confederacy and fought the Union.

The sign — one of many put up in the city by a veterans group in 2011 — reads that Lee became “a potent symbol of regional pride and dignity, and is still held in the same regard today.”

The sign’s language was developed with history provided by the city of Richland’s Planning and Redevelopment department.

A city pamphlet about the street names explains at greater length that Lee “remained bitter and worked to obstruct societal changes ... including the enfranchisement of African Americans.”

After learning how difficult it would be to rename the street, McBriarty suggested at the time that the city at least rededicate the route instead, saying that the city “can find a more ethically sound and culturally relevant person by the name of Lee to whom the boulevard may be dedicated.”

Lee isn’t the only Confederate with a street in Richland.

Smith Avenue is named after G.W. Smith, Lee’s predecessor as general of the Army of Northern Virginia, which was the primary Confederate army of the Civil War.

There may be more, but the city can’t find biographies for all of the street names.

This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 8:05 PM.