What’s In A Street Renaming?

It’s the most important thing a City Council can do, and Charles Barron respects the will of the people in that regard:

Defiant community leaders will gather Saturday in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn to unveil a new street sign bearing the name of Sonny Carson, a radical black activist who described himself as “anti-white.”

The renegade renaming comes nearly three weeks after the City Council voted down the proposal during a heated and racially charged hearing at City Hall. Council Member Charles Barron, a Democrat of Brooklyn, and his chief of staff, Viola Plummer, will attend the event.

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Tomorrow’s renaming will be the second attempt by Carson supporters to honor his memory despite not receiving official approvals from the city. On Memorial Day, Mr. Barron and others unveiled a sign at Linden Park in Brooklyn with his name. The sign was taken down by the city Department of Parks and Recreation.

Mr. Barron is quick to point out that the local community board approved the proposal to rename four blocks of Gates Avenue before it was blocked in the council.

“No one is going to tell us who our heroes can and can’t be,” he said yesterday. “We are not going to let the white members of the City Council to tell us no.”