Didn’t Chris Rock’s routine have him talking to his friend on a cell phone?
“Hello?”
“Hey man, can you come pick me up?”
“Sure, where are you?”
“I’m down on MLK Blvd.”
“RUUUUUUNNN!”
We’ve already got one in Houston. I think it would be odd for any city of any size not to have one, since I think MLK was the greatest American of the 20th century. This, FWIW, from a white guy.
Some people tried to get a street here named after Lightnin’ Hopkins (the greatest Houstonian of the 20th century), but it didn’t fly.
In Fort Worth, we have Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway, which does run through a predominately African-American part of town. It is also US 287, which is how some people refer to it. Occasionally you’ll hear someone refer to it as the Poly Freeway, which was its former name and a reference to the neighborhood it runs through (Polytechnic Heights).
In Dallas, there’s Martin Luther King Blvd., which also runs through a predominately African American part of town. It’s a main boulevard that leads up to the main gate of Fair Park, home of the State Fair of Texas and the Cotton Bowl. It was formerly Forest St., but no one ever refers to it as that any more.
Well, in Dallas, there is also a Malcolm X Blvd., which also runs through the same neighborhood as MLK. It also runs through the heart of Deep Ellum, the historical African-American retail and entertainment district where jazz and blues legends such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Leadbelly Ledbetter all played. I think it would be cool if they named some of the other street in Deep Ellum after them. (Come to think of it, there is a Ledbetter Dr. in Dallas, but I doubt it was named for Leadbelly. I’ve seen references that lead me to believe that Ledbetter existed at least as far back as the 1940s, so I somehow doubt it was named to honor Leadbelly.)
Update on my town’s MLK proposal: Well, if anyone cares, the local paper is now endorsing the idea of an MLK street, but wants it to be a new street, not a renaming of an old one. More convenient, and we’re building lots of streets these days, there’s no shortage. It turns out that the originally proposed street, Ivy/Warner, is more historical than I realized; it’s not only one of the oldest streets, it’s part of a series that spells out “Chico.” Chestnut, Hazel, Ivy, Cherry and Orange were planned that way. Ivy turns into Warner, which was named after the movie company after Robin Hood was filmed here (the Errol Flynn one). So the guy kind of picked a dud, but it seems we’re well on our way to finding something to name MLK Way.
We have one here in Oakland, and I remember when it was changed I think back in 83 or 84. As I recall there wasn’t much of an uproar. It used to be Grove St. Now it MLK Blvd. It starts downtown and runs to Childrens Hospital where it ends. Only the part that runs through West Oakland is particulary bad, and it’s kind of a shame, as most of the houses on that street are large Victorians. I thought the aea would change when housing prices soared here a few years ago, but it appears to have stagnated.
Actually there were people who objected, but it was mainly merchants who didn’t want to pay for new stationery.
The fact that they weren’t really wealthy merchants made their complaints a little less vocal.
Hey, it’s not all bad. They offer hookers too! North Chicago, Illinois has an MLK. -Comfirmed bad part of town.
Here in Austin, we have an MLK Boulevard- it used to be 19th Street, long ago, and you can tell how long a person ahs lived in Austin by what he calls that street. If he still calls it 19th Street, he’s a native- otherwise, he’s a transplant.
As far as I know, there’s never any controversy when streets get re-named, here in Austin… but there SHOULD be. Nobody objects to MLK, mind you, but our city council (which has no real duties, since a city manager does all the real work of running municipal services) is always extremely liberal and seriously lacking in real work to do. They spend most of their time coming up with stupid, pointless, symbolic gestures like re-naming streets after politically correct persons, whether or not they had any connection to Austin.
Even the many Hispanic Austinites couldn’t have cared less when our council renamed 1st Street after Cesar Chavez (most Mexicans still call it 1st Street, just as all the white folks do, and quite a few thought it was re-named after the boxer, rather than the head of the United Farm Workers!).
We have a MLK bypass here in Co Springs… the only notable person who objected to it was Betty Beedy (lovely name, eh?) who sd the man cheated on his wife (I believe Mr. Cecil did a piece on that bit). This was of course, the same woman who went on national TV and said single moms were sluts and only white people were “normal.” All this while she was still part of the city council!