KC almost stripped a slave owner’s name off a street. Then Mayor Lucas got in the way | Opinion

Kansas City had a rare opportunity to rename Troost Avenue. Then Mayor Quinton Lucas stepped in and derailed the entire process.

Lucas wanted to wait until 2028 to permanently replace street signs that bear the last name of Benoist Troost, a Kansas City physician who enslaved Black people. District 3 Councilwoman Melissa Robinson pushed back. As a result, the proposal first brought forth by Robinson was tabled this week and now we’re back to square one.

“At this point, the mayor has become an impediment to justice,” former Board of Parks and Recreation commissioner Chris Goode told me. “To put an honorary street sign above Troost Avenue is not what the people want. The goal is to remove the name of the street.”

Goode spearheaded the effort to rid the name from Kansas City streets. Robinson and others were instrumental in helping the push that he began in June 2022.

It may take months before the City Council could even address the issue again, according to Robinson. I have serious concerns about the manner in which Lucas killed this proposal — and Kansas Citians should too. This stall tactic he employed flat out stinks.

This week, in a special committee for legal review meeting that he chairs, Lucas introduced a revised ordinance that would have slowed the timeline to strip the name. This proposed ordinance, which passed out of committee by a 2-1 vote, would have placed honorary street signs above the ones already erected along the Troost corridor, if approved. It’s all a moot point now.

On Thursday, the amended ordinance Lucas had introduced one day earlier led to the council scraping the matter from its docket.

I reached out to the mayor’s office Wednesday for more information but was referred to the comments Lucas made in committee.

Lucas’ measure would have given residents and businesses along the corridor time to gradually transition their mailing address to Truth Avenue, he said during the meeting.

The revised ordinance pushed by Lucas stated: “Renaming a large avenue may cause logistical difficulties and disruptions to individuals and businesses as they change their address on all mailings, records, accounts, etc.”

“I am sympathetic to that,” Lucas said.

While I understand the need for a transition period, does it really take four years to change addresses? C’mon, Mayor Lucas.

Robinson’s original ordinance would have changed the street to Truth Avenue, if approved by the full council. Sadly, that measure was amended by Lucas in committee where he and District 6 at-large Councilwoman Andrea Bough voted in favor of the honorary designation. Robinson opposed.

I urge the Kansas City Council to use this time to convene a bi-regional committee to address renaming all city-owned streets and monuments that honor slave owners.

More than 1,000 Troost property owners, residents surveyed

I spoke with Robinson ahead of this week’s City Council meeting. She reiterated some key points about the proposed change.

She reminded me of a September 2020 council resolution requesting the Parks and Recreation commissioners to develop a plan to study the removal of memorials and monuments of people who enslaved other humans, promoted racism or participated in the oppression of Black people and other minorities.

But Jack Holland, then-president of the parks commission and a Lucas appointee, nixed those plans.

Multiple listening sessions were conducted with area property owners along Troost about changing the name, Robinson said. Private money was raised to bring awareness to the potential change. Postcards were sent to residents along Troost soliciting feedback.

More important, a survey conducted during this process targeting more than 1,000 residents and property owners along the corridor found 71% of people responding agreed that Kansas City streets should not bear the name of known slave owners. Are Lucas and the City Council listening?

Kansas City’s street naming committee also signed off on the name change, Robinson said.

Why shouldn’t the city act now?

“In four years, we’re going to be out of office,” Robinson told me. “If we need to go back to the drawing board, let’s do that. This is going to cause harm to the Black community.”

Troost is not the only major street or monument in Kansas City named after slave owners. Wornall Road, McGee Street and others come to mind. But the process to rename Troost was robust and painstaking, according to Goode, who owns a business on the street.

“We did everything we were supposed to do,” Goode said. “Why continue to celebrate slavery?”

As parks board commissioner, Goode was instrumental in the board’s decision to strip J.C. Nichols’ name from a street and fountain in Mill Creek Park on the Country Club Plaza. He also championed renaming three Kansas City boulevards to honor slain civil rights icon the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. His work on Troost should be commended. I am hopeful the effort was not in vain.

Troost Avenue is well known as the dividing line of Kansas City’s history of racial segregation and economic harm to Black residents. Renaming the street now could have gone a long way towards racial reconciliation in our city. Leaving the street signs in place four more years does little to create an environment of diversity and inclusion.

The Kansas City Council must act with a sense of urgency on this matter. I see little need to wait any longer to remove street signs that honor a slave owner.