Efforts to Rename Brady Arts District

[davideinstein]

So many Tulsans have toiled for decades to create a brand and build a vibrant downtown arts district and now some want to confuse people and kill the surging momentum by starting over by renaming it (too bad "The Rose District" is now taken).  To most Tulsans, The Brady District simply shares a name with the street and the theater – not to honor a racist man from a bygone era. 

If it's morality you want to argue, then we have lots of things named after Presidents, generals and others who owned slaves and/or fought to preserve slavery as a viable institution..  Those deeds were well known, yet their names continue adorning our money and buildings.

Henry Ford held some vile views, but the foundation that bears his name now supports liberal causes.  Highways, airports, stadiums and schools are named for various Kennedys, yet we continue to learn of deep and troubling flaws within their character.  For that matter, Dr. Martin Luther King may have plagiarized part of his doctorial thesis and engaged in extramarital affairs, yet scarcely a town in this country doesn't have a highway, school or more named for him and a new memorial in D.C was recently dedicated.

Where do we draw the line and who decides what part of history gets scrubbed clean for our modern sensibilities and what stays?

Amen, brother.

[Conan71]

Freakin "Lortondale"? Why is that place in this thread.... ducking, donning Kevlar.

That's "Lortondale District" to you Guido.

[guido911]

That's "Lortondale District" to you Guido.

Shut the thread down, Conan wins.

[JCnOwasso]

So many Tulsans have toiled for decades to create a brand and build a vibrant downtown arts district and now some want to confuse people and kill the surging momentum by starting over by renaming it (too bad "The Rose District" is now taken).  To most Tulsans, The Brady District simply shares a name with the street and the theater – not to honor a racist man from a bygone era. 

If it's morality you want to argue, then we have lots of things named after Presidents, generals and others who owned slaves and/or fought to preserve slavery as a viable institution..  Those deeds were well known, yet their names continue adorning our money and buildings.

Henry Ford held some vile views, but the foundation that bears his name now supports liberal causes.  Highways, airports, stadiums and schools are named for various Kennedys, yet we continue to learn of deep and troubling flaws within their character.  For that matter, Dr. Martin Luther King may have plagiarized part of his doctorial thesis and engaged in extramarital affairs, yet scarcely a town in this country doesn't have a highway, school or more named for him and a new memorial in D.C was recently dedicated.

Where do we draw the line and who decides what part of history gets scrubbed clean for our modern sensibilities and what stays?

I should have read your post more thoroughly to begin with.  This is the most reasonable arguement I have read.  I cannot argue about the issue of slavery other than to say that in that time it was what was believed and trusted.  Slavery and the forced relocation of the native americans are the top two items on a long list of things we completely screwed up on in our history.  Hindsight is 20/20 and there are things done today that are considered commonplace that I am sure will be considered outragous and taboo 100 years from now...

As for deep and troubling flaws in their character... I think it is one thing to say that MLK may have plagarized and slept around (again, commonly accepted during that time... or that is what Mad Men has tought me) and the list of Kennedy issues is as long as liam niesons you know what...  Those are completely different than a person who actively participated in the race riots and afterword did everything he could to prevent the rebuilding of Greenwood...  After all "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" 

[Salukipoke]

Amen, brother.

Completely agree.  We all have our history.  Some is great, some is not so great.  New article from This Land:
http://thislandpress.com/05/08/2013/diamond-in-the-rough/
Great read and one thing I take from it; yes, conservative, right wing Tulsa has a dark secret in it's past, but guess what?  So does progressive, liberal Portland.  Sadly, it was the times.

Leave the name Brady District and if nothing else, use it to educate and avoid repeating that time in the cities history.

[Conan71]

There's enough "maybe", "perhaps", and "possibly" in that article and the one last year purporting Tate Brady to be an evil racist you could drown in it.  It's essay, not hard news.

Many of Tulsa's early civic leaders were members of the same societies Brady was, that was the culture then.  Most of us who post here were raised in the post-CRA era so we were brought up with much more different views in terms of race.

[Conan71]

I went to Lee Roy Chapman's FB page for the first time today, seems his sole interest is re-naming the Brady district and has been that way for a year.  Wonder to what ends someone would go to bolster their theories right, wrong, or otherwise?

[BKDotCom]

http://www.newson6.com/story/22277124/residents-appeal-to-city-council-for-brady-district-name-change

this is ridiculous.
Is the area named the "Brady District" in any official capacity?
Or is it just a neighborhood association type thing.
What about Brady Street?

"I won't be down here supporting this district, spending one red copper penny, until they do right and rename the district. Because of what he stood for," said James Johnson.

lemme guess... you've never been down here.

Lets erase Tulsa's history and cash in our do-over.
Ooh, look at me! I'm making people happy! I'm the Magical Man from Happy-Land, in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane!

[patric]

The property owners should be the ones to decide.
So, what do they want to call it?

Oh, right.

[BKDotCom]

Relevant:

http://www.stabroeknews.com/2013/opinion/letters/03/09/names-carry-their-own-history-and-so-we-should-not-rename-places/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/27/secondworldwar.marktran
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/humphrey/2013/02/house-votes-69-22-to-block-loc.html

if you forget or erase history... you'll just end up repeating it.

[patric]

And then there's this:

[TheArtist]

 I go back and forth on the issue.

First my gut instinct was to say "change it" , make it the Guthrie Arts District or something.

Then someone pointed out how much time, work and money they have already put into the name.

 Then, someone the other day said to me. "Your an artist, would you want your work associated with Brady?"  "If it were the "Stalin Arts District", would you feel proud to tack that onto your work?".  Made me kind of look at things in a different way when it became personal to me as an artist.  

Nobody really thought of this issue for a long time because it wasn't well known. But interestingly, the more it's talked and argued about and the more "bad news" is put out there concerning Brady, the more distasteful the name becomes, and will become. Keeps up, and unfortunately more and more people will not be able to hear the name Brady without immediately conjuring up thoughts of "bad", instead of something positive and "art".  

[TheArtist]

  As per not changing things for the sake of history.  Sometimes changing the name of places is actually useful historically.  You can "date" things by what they were called and when. (Here is mention of "this place" which was called that during this time so we know it must have been written somewhere around that time.) And, (They called it this, for this reason and changed the name for this reason") which helps people see how society changed, lets you know something about their thoughts and attitudes during each era.  Changing the names of places is an age old practice that can actually act as historic punctuation marks.

[BKDotCom]

new article from this land press
http://thislandpress.com/roundups/brady-a-discussion-of-history-healing-and-the-significance-of-a-name/

[DolfanBob]

I'm sure the "MLK District" would fly right through.