After George Floyd, an unarmed Black American man, was murdered by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020, many people protested against systemic racism, both in the United States and internationally. During the course of these protests, many monuments and memorials were vandalized or toppled by protestors, prompting those people who were in charge of other similar monuments to remove them from public view. Similarly, many names, mascots, and other controversial forms of symbolism were either changed or removed under direct or indirect public pressure. In other countries, race-related and colonial issues were also raised, and some of them were acted upon. In some cases, changes were already being planned or they had already been under consideration before the outbreak of the protests.
The Nicholls State University president announced the renaming of two buildings on campus named for people associated with the Confederacy who had no relationship to the university.
The Berkeley Unified School District board unanimously voted to rename two elementary schools because of Thomas Jefferson's and George Washington's ownership of slaves. Jefferson ES was renamed after Ruth Acty, the first teacher of color in the Berkeley Unified School District, who dedicated nearly 50 years of her life to teaching.
The executive committee of the board of trustees of the University of Southern California (USC) voted unanimously to remove Rufus B. von KleinSmid's name. Von KleinSmid was the fifth president of USC, an active supporter of eugenics and forced sterilization, and the only West Coast university president who refused to send the transcripts of Japanese American students who were released from World War II internment camps to colleges in other states.
The Saint Ursula Academy leadership team decided to rename two of its facilities because of Marge Schott's "record of racism and bigotry." Schottzie was Schott's dog.
The Indiana University Board of Trustees approved the renaming.[lower-alpha 5] The sports facility was formerly named "Wildermuth Intramural Center" after former trustee Ora Wildermuth, but due to his "extraordinarily strong opposition to racial integration," Wildermuth's name was stripped from the facility in 2018. Bill Garrett was the "first black basketball player to regularly play in the Big Ten conference".
The Fullerton Joint Union High School District board of trustees unanimously voted to remove Plummer's name from the Fullerton Union High School auditorium. Plummer was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. An online petition had amassed over 27,000 signatures.
The School Board of Alachua County voted unanimously for the name change. Jesse J. Finley was a Confederate brigadier general. The board unanimously voted to rename the school after Gainesville native Carolyn Beatrice Parker, "the first African American woman in the U.S. to receive a graduate degree in physics", and who worked on the Manhattan Project.
Josephus Daniels was a newspaper editor and planner of the Wilmington insurrection of 1898 in which the biracial city government of Wilmington was overthrown by white supremacists. The middle school in Raleigh honoring him was renamed for its location on Oberlin Road.
The school superintendent cited "the segregationist views and ideas of the former president that ... have drastically reshaped his legacy" as the reason for the change.
After the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill board of trustees lifted a ban on renaming buildings, the university's Commission on History, Race and A Way Forward recommended the removal of four names of white supremacists to the Chancellor. The board temporarily changed the names of Carr Building and Aycock Residence Hall to the Student Affairs Building and Residence Hall 1 respectively; it later voted to rename Residence Hall 1 after Hortense McClinton, the university's first Black professor, and the Students Affairs Building after Henry Owl, the university's first Native American student.
The Walpole School Committee voted unanimously to change the school's mascot. More than 150 people participated in a rally for the change. Multiple Change.org petitions had called for the change, amassing over 14,000 signatures in total.
The City School District of Albany announced that it would form a School Naming Policy Committee to create "a policy regarding the naming and renaming of district buildings and facilities" including that of this elementary school.[lower-alpha 6]Philip Schuyler was "the largest slave owner in late-1700s Albany County".
The school board voted unanimously to change the names. "Unity" reflected the desire of the community. Carroll Braxton is a Marine veteran of World War II and the Korean War. Celestine Braxton served Prince William County Public Schools for 33 years, and worked to integrate the schools when they were segregated. Arthur Reed was a security assistant at the high school for 20 years who "had a huge impact within the school community" and "loved his school and his students".
The Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously to rename the school and requested feedback and suggestions from the community. The board voted unanimously to rename the school after recently deceased civil rights leader John Lewis.[lower-alpha 7]
In June 2020, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board started the process to rename Zebulon B. Vance HS, named after Confederate military officer Zebulon Baird Vance. In October, the board unanimously voted to rename the school in honor of civil rights icon Julius L. Chambers, whose legal work led to the desegregation of Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in the 1970s.
The University of Cincinnati board of trustees voted unanimously to rename a stadium and a library seminar room named after Marge Schott, who made racist remarks in support of Adolf Hitler.[lower-alpha 8]
The University of Oregon board of trustees unanimously voted to remove Matthew Deady's name from the hall.[lower-alpha 9] The hall was temporarily renamed "University Hall". Deady was Oregon's first federal judge, and advocated for racial discrimination against African Americans. Previous attempts to change the name had failed.[lower-alpha 10]
In 1945, over 1,900 Pacific Beach residents petitioned to remove Pacific Beach Middle School's first black teacher from the staff because they didn't think a black teacher deserved to be there. In 2021, a joint-use field at Pacific Beach Middle School was named after Payne and his wife after a petition was circulated in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement the previous summer.
In June 2020, two sisters, both students at Serra High School, started a petition to change the school's namesake Father Junipero Serra and the school mascot away from the Conquistadors. The San Diego Unified School District board would go on to unanimously approve the renaming of the school to Canyon Hills in March 2021.
The Princeton University board of trustees voted to change the names because "Wilson's racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school whose scholars, students, and alumni must be firmly committed to combatting the scourge of racism in all its forms". Wilson opposed admitting African American students to Princeton, and introduced racial segregation into the U.S. federal civil service as U.S. president. He also was an avid supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, as in his book A History of the American People he is generally sympathetic to the group stating how during Reconstruction "the white men of the South were aroused by the mere instinct of self-preservation to rid themselves, by fair means or foul, of the intolerable burden of governments sustained by the votes of ignorant negroes and conducted in the interest of adventurers". Wilson also approved the White House screening of the film The Birth of a Nation, which glorified the Klan and led to its resurgence in the southern United States.
The Appalachian State University board of trustees unanimously voted to support Chancellor Sheri Everts' plan to replace the names of the two residence halls. Clyde R. Hoey was a governor of North Carolina who was a segregationist and white supremacist. Edward Francis Lovill was a Confederate captain who "secured a bill that would ultimately lead to the creation of ... the forerunner of Appalachian State" while serving as a Democratic state senator in 1885, and was "the chair of the school's first board of trustees". He was described as a "Democrat of the purest type" at a time when the party "stood for a return to white supremacy and its associated policies".
Western Carolina University's board of trustees unanimously voted to rename the auditorium. As governor, Hoey "...actively opposed civil rights legislation and favored racial segregation". He also opposed statehood for Hawaii because it had "only a small percentage of white people".
UC Berkeley denamed a building named for Alfred Kroeber, the "founder of the study of anthropology in the American West." Reasons given were the collection of Native American remains for curation and taking custody of a Native American genocide survivor who "performed as a living exhibit for museum visitors."
UC Berkeley faculty member David Prescott Barrows was an anthropologist and colonizer of the Philippines education system who professed that the white race was superior to all others.
The Queens University of Charlotte Board of Trustees unanimously voted to rename the main administration building. Rev. Robert Armistead Burwell was the first head of the Charlotte Female Institute, a precursor of the university. He was also a slaveowner who led a Presbyterian church that excluded slaves.
The Chowan University board of trustees renamed the facility, which had honored U.S. SenatorJesse Helms, because "positions taken by Senator Helms were not in keeping with the current mission of Chowan University". The history department called on the university for the change, stating that "it is now time to acknowledge the institutional racism Senator Helms embodied". The center was renamed for the school's athletic teams, the Hawks.
Belhaven University's board of trustees renamed the residence hall. Gillespie was a segregationist and former president of the university. The renaming was supported by the Gillespie family.
City, University of London announced that its business school would be renamed to strip the school's association with slave trader Sir John Cass. It was decided to rename the school after Thomas Bayes, a philosopher.
The Entomological Society of America renamed its student quiz bowl. Carl Linnaeus, known as the father of modern taxonomy, had "named four 'varieties' of human and ascribed to them anthropological and cultural stereotypes that are inappropriate and offensive today".[lower-alpha 11]
Marshall University's governing board unanimously voted to remove the name of Confederate general Albert Gallatin Jenkins from the building, and use "Education Building" as a temporary name until the board voted for a new name.[lower-alpha 15]
The Brea Olinda Unified School District board unanimously voted to change the name after the Fanning family submitted a letter to the board requesting that the name be removed.[lower-alpha 16] William E. Fanning may have been a KKK member.[lower-alpha 17] The falcon is the school's mascot.
The Union County Schools Board of Education voted to change the name and mascot. An image of a Confederate soldier had been removed from the school logo earlier after the NAACP called for its change.
The Shenandoah County School Board voted to remove the names of Confederate leaders and change the mascots at two of its schools. The board had previously issued a resolution condemning racism. After three school board members running on a platform against teaching critical race theory in schools were elected, a motion to restore the Stonewall Jackson name lost on a tie vote.
University of Texas at Austin interim president Jay Hartzell announced that the building and the football field would be renamed. Robert Lee Moore was a segregationist mathematics professor who refused to teach Black students,[lower-alpha 19] was "hostil[e] toward the black community", and was "obsess[ed] with claims of intellectual differences among the races". Joe Jamail was a rich alumnus who made large donations to the university.[lower-alpha 20] Jamail's family requested the name change "to be more inclusive and promote diversity".
Grand Prairie Independent School District voted to rename the school. Delmas Morton served the children of the school district for nearly 45 years, including 17 as principal of Austin Elementary School.
Renamed due to Wilson's segregationist policies and racist foreign policies. The new name honors a local park with a natural amphitheatre that was used by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and an 1874 women's suffrage convention.
The Hanover County School Board voted to rename the schools and change their mascots. Lee-Davis was home of the Confederates, and Stonewall Jackson was home of the Rebels. Lee-Davis had been founded in 1959 as an all-white school. A petition to rename Lee-Davis had amassed roughly 25,000 signatures.
The Las Cruces Public Schools board voted to rename the school, despite a community survey reporting overwhelming opposition to the change. One of a number of removals of references toconquistadorJuan de Oñate from public spaces in New Mexico.
San Antonio College's College Council unanimously recommended to "immediately stop using the name, symbol, logo, and image of the 'Ranger'", which college president Robert Vela approved.[lower-alpha 25]
The Tyler Independent School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to change the schools' names. John Tyler was President of the United States from 1841 to 1845, but joined the Confederacy after the start of the Civil War.
Peter Burnett Elementary School was named after California's first governor. However, due to Burnett's racist history, the school was renamed to 138th Street Elementary School. At the January 25, 2022 school board meeting, 138th Street was given a new name: Aviation Elementary School. The renaming took place effective the 2023-2024 school year.
The University of Alabama trustees unanimously voted to rename both halls. Morgan Hall, which contains the school's English department, was named after John Tyler Morgan, a former U.S. senator. Morgan maintained ties with the Ku Klux Klan, called the abolition of slavery a mistake, and promoted Jim Crow laws. Nott Hall was named after Josiah C. Nott, a scientist, slaveowner, and advocate for slavery.
Virginia Tech changed the name of two residence halls after a vote by the school's Board of Visitors. Paul Brandon Barringer was a former administrator and President of Virginia Tech who was known for his eugenicist and white supremacist views. Barringer Hall was renamed in honor of the first Black student allowed to live on campus, James Leslie Whitehurst Jr. Claudius Lee was a professor at the school who was listed as being the "Father of Terror" in a campus organization named the "K.K.K." in the 1896 edition of the school's yearbook, Bugle. Lee Hall was renamed after Janie and William Hoge, a notable Black couple in the area who had housed students denied housing by discriminatory practices conducted by the school in the 1950s.
The Cass Child and Family Centre, which runs a reception class alongside a nursery and children's centre at the school, also was renamed, as the City of London Child and Family Centre.
Hume was involved in the slave trade and wrote in his essay "Of National Characters" (1753) that "negros" are "naturally inferior to the whites". The building is the tallest on the University of Edinburgh campus.
Vaughan Secondary School was a high school named for the city it is in, Vaughan, Ontario. It was revealed that Benjamin Vaughan, after whom the city was named, was a slaveowner. After consultations, the school was controversially renamed after Hodan Nalayeh, a Somali-Canadian journalist.
The middle school, which was formerly restricted to white students, was renamed after Roberto Clemente, a Major League baseball player and humanitarian.
The College of William & Mary announced the renaming of multiple campus buildings previously named for various Confederate officers and/or segregationists. The former two were given placeholder names, while the following two were renamed for two William & Mary alumni; Tyler Hall reverted to its former name, after the chancellors of the college.
A previous attempt to rename the school in 2017 was unsuccessful. The new name was decided in a vote by staff and students. Edward Colston was an English merchant and slave trader. Colston's School, a different school in Bristol, is also reconsidering its name.
The house at Merchant Taylors' School, named after Robert Clive, was renamed after cricketer, rugby player and politician John Raphael, who died in World War I. Both were former pupils of the school.
One of Purchase College's three first-year dormitories. Renamed due to "Big House" being slang for prison, which "disproportionately targets Black, Indigenous, and People of Color".
The name "Dixie", former Rebels mascot, and Confederate symbolism in logos long had been a source of controversy. Protests after Floyd's murder led to students seeking to drop Dixie from the university's name.
An advisory committee to Minneapolis Public Schools unanimously approved a name-change process for the school, which was named after the early American Revolutionary figure, Patrick Henry, who also owned slaves. The 2022 name-change decision was a contrast to a pre-George Floyd renaming effort that failed in 2018. The community recommended it be named for the Camden Community it was located in.The city school board approved the change in late 2023 effective for the 2024-25 school year.
Portland Parks & Recreation and Mayor Ted Wheeler announced the change. Rutherford was a prominent local historian and civil rights leader. Centennial School District Superintendent Paul Oakley stated that there was no connection between lynching and the Lynch family, but the name caused "a disruption for some students".
The Plymouth City Council announced that the square would be renamed because of John Hawkins's links to the slave trade. It now commemorates the Plymouth ArgylefootballerJack Leslie, the only professional black player in England between 1921 and 1934.
The Western Australian government sought to hasten the name change in response to the removal of Leopold II's statue in Antwerp. The new name is a combination of the names given to the ranges by the traditional owners, the Ngarinyin and Bunuba peoples.
The City Council voted to rename the park after writer and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson. The adjacent monorail station was also renamed to match.
The Stapleton Master Community Association voted to rename the Denver neighborhood[lower-alpha 26] named after former mayor and Ku Klux Klan member Benjamin F. Stapleton, for whom Denver's former airport, Stapleton International Airport, was also named. The community narrowed down the new name to four options: Central Park, Concourse, Mosley, and Skyview. The community selected the name "Central Park".
City Administrator and Acting Mayor Julia Glanz stated that the inspiration came from the renaming of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., and executing the idea was inexpensive and took about two weeks.
During the renaming ceremony, Mayor Don Ryan stated that "until Black Lives Matter, the dream of the United States Constitution falls short of its mark."
On Jun 27, 2020, the municipal council of Gorée Island unanimously voted to rename the square. The island itself is a symbol of the slave trade, and associations had demanded that the square be renamed as early as 2018.
The Lexington City Council voted unanimously to change the name and requested suggestions from residents. Stonewall Jackson was buried there in 1863, and the cemetery was named after him in 1949. The council unanimously voted to change the name to "Oak Grove Cemetery", subject to a public hearing, which confirmed the change.
The mayor stated that the park would be renamed, stating that "what we know about Christopher Columbus simply makes his image a poor fit for a city that is diverse as Trenton". A statue of Christopher Columbus was also removed from the park.
The City Commission unanimously voted to change the name. Florida Chief Justice Roy H. Chapman "upheld segregationist policies". Dr. Charles Evans was president of the Tallahassee NAACP.
The mountain was previously named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who had no known connections with the state of California. The new name is derived from the Washo language and roughly translates to "saddle between points."
The mayor and other city officials stated that the park would be renamed "with a name that better honors the contributions and sacrifices of Italian Americans". A statue of Christopher Columbus was also removed from the park.
The Pensacola City Council voted unanimously to revert the square's name back to Florida Square. The council also voted to remove a Confederate monument in the square.
Alameda's first park was renamed after previously honoring former U.S. President Andrew Jackson. The City Council directed the Parks and Recreation Commission to propose new names, and a change to Chochenyo Park was made official shortly afterward. Chochenyo is the language spoken by the Lisjan Ohlone people.
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) announced it was "working with the Community Board, City Council and community" to rename the intersection of Bleecker and Mott streets outside its Manhattan Health Clinic. Margaret Sanger was a supporter of eugenics. The City Council had voted to name the intersection after Sanger in 1993, as PPGNY had moved a clinic to that location and advocated for the honorary naming. They voted to remove the street sign in December 2021.
Local residents decided on a new name for the park, which had been named after slave trader John Cass. It now honors Kathleen 'Kit' Crowley, who lived in the neighborhood for six decades and was described by those who nominated her as 'a role model for children of the Windrush generation growing up in the area'. She experienced poverty and racism in childhood, and growing up where survival often relied on the goodness of neighbours shaped her resilience and sense of community spirit.
The City Commission of Sanford restored the original name to the park.[lower-alpha 30] Roy G. Williams was a former police chief who once removed Jackie Robinson from a baseball game to enforce segregation laws and was also once jailed for forcing city prisoners to work on his farm in Georgia. The park is located on Elliott Avenue.
The District Assembly[de] of Berlin's Mitte district decided to rename the street, which uses a term considered to be a racial slur.[lower-alpha 31]Anton Wilhelm Amo is considered to be "Germany's first well-known philosopher and legal scholar of African origin". (See also Mohrenstraße U-Bahn station, below).
Residents of Brussels submitted suggestions for a new name for the tunnel, after a woman. Following a vote, it was decided to rename the tunnel after Annie Cordy, a local singer.
Residents and businesses on the street had been asked to choose a new name from a shortlist of two: Jocelyn Barrow Lane and La Rose Lane, after John La Rose, a poet, writer and political and cultural activist. The new sign was vandalised but restored.
Despite the misspelling, the ward had been partly named for 19th-century British politician Henry Goulburn. Due to his attachment to slavery, his part of the name was changed in favor of the local Jock River.
The Lyon Park Citizens' Association proposed the change to the Parks and Recreation Commission in 2020, and the move received unanimous support from the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board and majority support from the Neighborhood Conservation Advisory Committee. Secretary of State Henry Clay held abolitionist views but kept slaves. Zitkala-Ša was a Native American writer, musician, educator and activist who lived in Arlington and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
From 2012 on, there were calls to rename McCarran International Airport. It had been named after U.S. SenatorPat McCarran, who had a reputation for being anti-Semitic and racist. After the murder of George Floyd, the Clark County Commission decided to rename the airport after U.S. Senator Harry Reid. Reid apologized in 2010 for racist remarks he made about Barack Obama.
Local activists called for the street to be renamed due to its association with Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Other residents opposed the change, citing city records that indicated the street was named for Elbert Forrest, a local African American business owner. The city council approved the renaming in favor of Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States.
A street in the Longfellow community was renamed for John Cheatham, one of the first Black firefighters in the city. It had been named for Charles Fremont Dight, a former city councilor and food safety proponent, but who had also advocated for human eugenics and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
An executive order by Gov. Gina Raimondo removed "and Providence Plantations" from official state documents and symbols. Leading legislators of the General Assembly then removed the phrase from internal legislative documents. Rhode Island voters approved the name change in a referendum on November 3, 2020. The same question had previously failed 78% to 22% in 2010. Though Providence Plantations did not utilize slaves, petitioners argued the word has connotations of Southern slave plantations, and that Rhode Island merchants historically played a large role in the transatlantic slave trade.
Having received a petition, city councilor Georgette Gomez wrote a letter to Congress to support legislation changing the building's name. Rep. Sara Jacobs has called for "genuine community involvement in the naming process." On November 18, 2022, Jacobs introduced a bill to rename the post office co-sponsored by all 53 members of the California delegation of the US House. It passed by voice vote on November 29, 2022. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on December 27.
Renamed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer via executive order. Lewis Cass was a Michigan territorial governor who "owned a slave; defended a system to permit the expansion of slavery; and implemented a policy that forcibly removed Native Americans from their tribal lands". State Representatives Daisy Elliott and Melvin L. Larsen were primary sponsors of the bipartisan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG)[lower-alpha 32] initially announced that the station would be renamed "Glinkastraße" after a street nearby, as "Mohr" is considered a racial slur (see Mohrenstraße, above).[lower-alpha 31] The proposed name was criticized as its namesake, the composer Mikhail Glinka, was anti-Semitic.[lower-alpha 33] A final decision on the name has yet to be made.
The City of Minneapolis renamed a two-block section of Chicago Avenue near its intersection of East 38th Street in honor of George Floyd. The area of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue is the location of the George Floyd Square occupation protest since 2020.
The neighborhood was named East Calhoun, after the formerly named Lake Calhoun (for Vice President John C. Calhoun), prior to August 2021. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and greater awareness of racial justice issues, community members sought to change the name to honor the history of the Dakota people in the area.
The Minneapolis City Council on May 12, 2022, voted to approved a resolution by Andrea Jenkins rename "George Perry Floyd Jr. Place" as "George Perry Floyd Square". The section of Chicago Avenue from East 38th Street had previously been renamed for Floyd in September 2020. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey approved the change on May 17, 2022. The area of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue was referred to colloquially as George Floyd Square.
The former name was removed from the building's exterior four days after the statue of Edward Colston nearby was pulled down. The new name was voted for by the 20 businesses based in the tower; it mirrors the renaming of the nearby concert hall, Colston Hall, as the Bristol Beacon.
Took its name from the former name of the nearby lake Bde Maka Ska, which was renamed in 2018 because of John C. Calhoun's support for slavery and Indian removal.
Colgate-Palmolive stated, "We are currently working ... to review and further evolve all aspects of the brand, including the brand name." Darlie's marketing and packaging features the phrase, 黑人牙膏, which translates into "Black people toothpaste" in reference to its former English name, Darkie. On December 14, 2021, Hawley & Hazel announced the Chinese name of the brand will rename as "好來" ("Haolai") from March 2022.
Jul 2, 2020(Glow & Lovely) TBA (untitled cosmetics for men)
Unilever announced that it would rename its skin-lightening cream and remove references to lightening and whitening. The new names "Glow & Lovely" and "Glow & Handsome" were announced, with the latter for the men's version of the brand. Emami threatened legal action, as it had renamed its own brand "Fair and Handsome" to "Glow and Handsome" the previous week. On April 11, 2024, the Calcutta High Court ordered Unilever to removed the "Glow & Handsome" products from shelves after Emami winning the suit.
The Walt Disney Company announced that the Splash Mountain rides at Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida will be renamed, with depictions from the controversial 1946 film Song of the South replaced with those from 2009's The Princess and the Frog, which introduced the first black Disney Princess. While the rebranding was planned for at least over a year, the public unveiling of the project was moved up earlier than when it was originally going to be announced. On July 1, 2022, Disney announced that Splash Mountain will be transformed into Tiana's Bayou Adventure with the attraction scheduled to open in late 2024.
The owner also removed a Confederate monument on the ferry grounds. Jubal Early was "a Confederate general and white supremacist who spent his life promoting the 'Lost Cause' mythology". Elijah V. White, a Confederate colonel, had purchased the ferry after the Civil War. He named the ferry service "White's Ferry" after his family, and named the ferry itself after General Early.
In 2020, management of the resort, known for being location to the 1960 Winter Olympics, announced that removing the slur in its name would be a "lengthy and expensive process" but that it is actively taking an inventory to find out how much it would cost pending a final decision in the future. The resort announced the change was done with guidance of the Washoe Tribe.
While there had never been any major outcries or backlash regarding the garden's original name, the Bigelows said they have always been sensitive to the fact that the word "plantation" carries significant pain for many in the country and throughout the world.
Swedish Match announced that "Red Man" would be changed to "America's Best Chew" as its former name had since been viewed as a derogatory term for a person of color as it showed the head of a Native American wearing a headdress, which also removes the image as well.
In 2019, Trader Joe's stated that labels which were using such variations of the "Trader Joe's" name were being eliminated, and "these designations do not appear on any new products we have introduced in the past two years". Many of the labels remained during the George Floyd protests, prompting a petition to rename the items, and another statement from Trader Joe's mentioning again that they were being eliminated, and being noncommittal about when the change would be completed. On Jul 24, 2020, Trader Joe's reversed its stance, stating that they "disagree that any of these labels are racist", and that they would only decide on renaming a product "based on what customers purchase [and] the feedback we receive from our customers and [employees]", and not based on a petition.[lower-alpha 37]
Named for its founders Sam Battistone and Newell Bohnett in 1957. Formerly marketed using imagery from The Story of Little Black Sambo, which has negative connotations. Chad Stevens was the owner when the restaurant was renamed.
The restaurant's owners announced that they would be renaming it because of William "Bully" Hayes's involvement in blackbirding in the Pacific during the late 19th century.
Parent company Mars, Inc. stated that "now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben's brand, including its visual brand identity." Effective September 22, Uncle Ben's has been renamed to Ben's Original.
Nestlé announced that it would rename the chocolate-coated marshmallow treat and remove the image used on its packaging. Beso de negra means "kiss from a black woman". The packaging used an image of a black woman with bare shoulders and a colorful dress.
Eskimo Pies were the brand name of a vanilla ice cream product dipped in chocolate. "Eskimo" has been criticized as a racist name for Arctic indigenous peoples such as the Inuit and Yupik.
Owner Gayle Benson announced the plan to change the name and requested community input. Dixie is a nickname for the Southern United States, especially the states that formed the Confederacy.
The pub was named after the coat of arms of slave trader Edward Colston. A new name (Ye olde Pubby Mcdrunkface) was deliberately chosen to start a discussion on August 30, 2020. On December 24, 2021, the pub's name was officially changed to "The Open Arms".
Hansens Flødeis[dk] announced the name change, made "in case it offended Inuit and other Arctic people". The term "Eskimo" has "a pejorative meaning for many Greenlanders". O'Payo is the name of the Nicaraguan cocoa beans from which the chocolate covering the ice cream is made.
Music-themed restaurant was named after Crazyhorse Guitars, formerly operating from that location, and Neil Young's backing bandCrazy Horse, but was renamed to avoid comparison to Lakota leader Crazy Horse and any appearance of disrespect.
While its owners have said in the past that Coon cheese was named after US cheese maker Edward William Coon, this assertion has been challenged, with no link found between the two. "Coon" is a derogatory term for black people, in Australia mainly referring to Indigenous Australians and African Australians.
Knorr, a Unilever brand, announced it would rename Zigeunersauce to Paprikasauce Ungarische Art. The term Zigeuner translates to "gypsy" and is generally considered offensive. The replacement name translates to "Hungarian-style paprika sauce". Other manufacturers announced similar plans.
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) announced it was removing the name of Margaret Sanger from its Manhattan clinic because of her support for eugenics. Karen Seltzer, PPGNY board chair, cited Sanger's "racist legacy" as a reason for the removal. Defenders, including historian Linda Gordon, claimed that Sanger was "no more racist than many progressives of her time".
Carilion Clinic announced it had obtained full ownership of the hospital, and would rename the hospital "follow[ing] the naming convention it uses for all other facilities ... to reflect the region it serves" once the "necessary regulations are met".
The owners announced that they would be changing the name in response both to Captain James Cook's controversial legacy among Māori and to the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by George Floyd's murder.
Bristol Music Trust announced that the venue, located near the statue that was famously toppled on June 8, would be renamed; it described this as "a fresh start for the organisation and its place in the city". There had been plans to rename the venue since 2017.
U.S. country music band changed its name because of its association with slavery.[lower-alpha 40] African American singer Anita White, who had been using the name professionally for over 20 years, was unhappy with the change, stating, "It's an opportunity for them to pretend they're not racist or pretend this means something to them. If it did, they would've done some research." On July 8, the band filed a lawsuit against the singer.
With the name change that the company announced they would donate money towards organizations which promote and assist Native American communities in North America. In a written statement, founder David Birkett explained. "The last few weeks have been a monumental learning curve ... Following the receipt of an eye-opening letter from a Crass fan that detailed precisely why the logo and label name are offensive, as well as the violent history of the terminology, I felt equally appalled and grateful to them for making me understand what must be changed."
Band members announced that their upcoming album To Better Days would be the last they would release under their current name. In a statement, they said "As obstinate supporters of the BLM Movement, we cannot continue to tie our music and our positive message to a word associated with such negative weight and hurt." On October 15, 2021, the band announced that they had changed their name to Rain City and signed to independent record label Thriller Records. However, the band later opted to be known as Rain City Drive.
The American DJ announced the change to her stage name after a petition that said "a white woman calling herself 'black' is highly problematic". The original name was chosen as "a reflection of [her] family's lifelong and profound Catholic devotion to a specific kind of European icon of the Virgin Mary which is dark in hue".
The English DJ announced the change a day after fellow disc jockey 'The Black Madonna', Lee admitted he had "not felt comfortable with the name Joey Negro for a while, especially as I've got older".
The German metalcore band announced that they were taking time to "think about [their] name" and that they had deleted several old songs due to offensive and discriminatory lyrics via a post on their Instagram profile. On March 9, 2022, they announced that they would be called Electric Callboy from now on.
On July 1, 2020, a group of investors worth $620 billion had written letters to Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo asking them to stop their support of the NFL until the Washington Redskins changed their name. On July 23, 2020, the Washington Football Team was adopted as the club's temporary name. The team played under that until a full rebrand as the "Commanders" was announced on February 2, 2022.
On Jul 21, 2020, the Edmonton Football Team announced that their board of directors decided to discontinue the use of the old name, as Eskimo is considered a derogatory name for indigenous Alaskans and Canadians.[lower-alpha 41]Belairdirect, a longtime sponsor, announced earlier that month that it would cut ties with the team if the name was not changed.
On June 1, 2021, it was formally announced that the new team name would be the Edmonton Elks.
The team announced that they would be reviewing their name to "embrace [their] responsibility to advance social justice and equality."
On December 14, 2020, they announced they would be retiring the Indians branding. On July 23, 2021, they announced the new name to be the Cleveland Guardians; the name change was officially completed on November 19, 2021.
For the second time since Floyd's murder, the BBWAA changed the name of an award due to revelations of racist conduct involving an honoree. This time, it affected the award presented for lifetime achievement in writing about baseball. Spink, who published the Sporting News from 1914 to 1962, used "racist language, ugly stereotypes, and derogatory portrayals" of Negro League players and other African-Americans. The name change received 97% support among the association's members.
Developer Matt Ahrens, co-creator of ZFS, updated the code to "[r]emove unnecessary references to slavery". The abbreviation "dm" stands for "device-mapper" and "deps" for "dependents".
GitHub CEONat Friedman announced they were working on the change. Developer Petr Baudiš, self-described "clueless Central European youngster [in 2005] whose command of English was mostly illusory", stated that he chose the term to "express 'this is where you cloned this repo[sitory] from'", as in "master recording".
Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas (CMS-A) issued a statement "in solidarity with the Black community" that implied collaboration with Hue Society, without the knowledge of Hue Society Founder Tahiirah Habibi. Habibi then posted a video denying any collaboration and explaining her experiences with CMS-A, including seeing her dream to become "the first black woman to attain [Master Sommelier] status" be shattered after her CMS-A testing experience, which included the requirement that master sommeliers be addressed as "master".[lower-alpha 42]
Change was made on its property listing database, but "did not constitute a ban on the use of the word 'master'", which can still be used on marketing materials.
Principal engineer Linus Torvalds added to the coding style documentation a recommendation to "avoid introducing new usage" of such terminology.[lower-alpha 44]
NASA announced that it was reviewing the unofficial terminology it has used for celestial objects in order to determine if any are "not only insensitive, but can be actively harmful". For terminology it has deemed inappropriate, official designations determined by the International Astronomical Union would be used. Two nicknames had been determined as inappropriate at the time of NASA's announcement.
GovernorPhil Murphy signed legislation to change the name of the governing bodies at the county level in the state. Lt. GovernorSheila Oliver, an African-American woman who was once a freeholder herself, said that the term "refers to a time when only white male landowners could hold public office".
University of West Florida Historic Trust planned to change the name after learning that Wentworth was "the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Escambia County". Wentworth had become an Exalted Cyclops in 1925, and the collection of memorabilia he donated to the state in 1983 eventually became the museum that was named after him in 1988. On March 18, 2021, the UWF Historic Trust board voted to change the name of the museum in a 5–4 decision with a new name "Pensacola Museum of History at the University of West Florida".
On June 24, 2020, the board of trustees approved the name change. The new name was chosen to "better reflect [ the museum's] work towards equity, inclusion, and decolonization".
The Lagos State House of Assembly unanimously passed a motion to call on Lagos StateGovernorBabajide Sanwo-Olu "to direct the Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture to liaise with the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to look at the Listed Sites (Prevention) Law, 2015" with the intention of removing references of colonialism and the slave trade. Floyd's murder and the removal of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol were explicitly referenced.
Luton Borough Council decided to change the name of a street named after Robert Hibbert, a wealthy slave owner who "set up 12 cottages in Castle Street as a charity for poor widows" that were later replaced by almshouses on the street that bears his name. Consultation with the street's residents, required by local law, has been planned to start in the coming weeks.
Clemson University Board of Trustees decided to rename one of their buildings. "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman was a "governor and white supremacist" who "used virulent racism to dominate South Carolina politics". The Heritage Act requires two-thirds approval from South Carolina General Assembly to rename the building.
President of University of South Carolina endorsed a resolution to rename J. Marion Sims residence hall. Sims "performed hundreds of medical experimentations on enslaved African American women". Board of Trustees approved unanimously. The Heritage Act requires two-thirds approval from South Carolina General Assembly to rename the building.
City Council voted unanimously for the change. Must be reviewed by Development Coordinating Committee and approved by City Plan Commission before returning to City Council for another approval. Buffalo Soldiers were "the first Black professional soldiers to serve during peacetime".
Orangeburg City Council voted unanimously to rename the road. The Heritage Act requires two-thirds approval from South Carolina General Assembly to rename the road.
The president of Indiana University formed a committee to review sites and awards named for David Starr Jordan, a former university president and prominent supporter of eugenics. The committee was also tasked with reviewing "all buildings on the nine [Indiana University] campuses and remov[ing] names of anyone whose statements and writings are judged unworthy of the recognition".
The president of the University of Maine announced on June 29 that he would request that the University of Maine System Board of Trustees remove the name of C. C. Little, the founder of the American Eugenics Society, from a lecture hall.
Rector of the Board of Trustees reported that "a committee of the board would embark on a review of the symbols and name of the university". Faculty had formally requested the trustees to remove Lee's name the previous day, and student government had requested the change the previous week. On June 4, 2021, after 11 months of deliberation, the committee voted 22-6 to keep the name.[538]
San Antonio's City Council was scheduled to vote on the renaming on August 13, 2020. A statue of Columbus was removed from the park on July 1, 2020 after it was vandalized.
On Jun 10, 2020, Toronto mayor John Tory stated that a working group would be formed "to examine the issue of renaming streets" in response to a petition about the street named after Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. The proposal also received support from Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath. Dundas allegedly prolonged Britain's involvement in slavery by 15 years as he had "made himself the champion of 'gradual' abolition of the slave trade".
The city's final report, published in Jun 18, 2021, supported renaming the street. The city's process also sparked reviews of the use of the Dundas name in other areas of the province, including Mississauga, London and Hamilton.
On Jul 6, 2021, the City of Toronto's executive committee unanimously supported the renaming of Dundas Street.
A petition calling on the government to remove the names of several British colonial figures was presented to parliament by lawyer Apollo Makubuya, former Principal JudgeJames Ogoola, and Member of Parliament Medard Segona. Makubuya explained "our petition has been given a new momentum" because of the George Floyd protests. Speaker Rebecca Kadaga announced plans to convene a task force for the renaming and Kampala lord mayor Erias Lukwago described the motivation as "removing the names of dictators and people who committed crimes against humanity from our streets".
In response to vandalism of the statue of Hans Christian Heg, which was targeted during the George Floyd protest even though Heg was an abolitionist and the publisher of an anti-slavery newspaper, Rep. US Representative Bryan Steil introduced a bill to rename a post office in Muskego the "Colonel Hans Christian Heg Post Office".
In April 2022, the legislature of Prince Edward Island unanimously voted in favor of renaming the Confederation Bridge—opened and named as such in 1997—to Epekwitk Crossing, "as way to uphold rights of Indigenous people". The structure connects the Canadian island province of Prince Edward Island to the mainland of contiguous North America. The "Confederation" in the original name refers to the 1867 Confederation of Canada, while "Epekwitk" is the indigenous Mi'kmaq name for Prince Edward Island. The name change must be approved by the Canadian federal government.
↑ Durham's name was also removed from the building and SVU's web site, and would no longer be used in SVU's publications.[15] SVU administrators had become aware of Durham's views about a week before the renaming, from a social media post in response to a statement condemning racism made by the university roughly a week after the George Floyd protests began.[15][16]
↑ Durham authored and published a novel with white supremacist themes, disenfranchised African American voters, and advocated for white supremacist views with US Congressmembers and other politicians.[15]
↑ The resolution approved by the trustees stated, "The Trustees of Indiana University do hereby approve the naming of the Intramural Center on the IU Bloomington Campus as the William Leon Garrett Fieldhouse."[22] However, the sign in front of the facility itself reads "Bill Garrett Fieldhouse".[23]
↑ The trustees had actually approved a recommendation to rename the facility to "William L. Garrett-Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center" on February 20, 2009.[24] However, the school announced four days later that it would not implement the change because it lacked support from Garrett's family.[24]
↑ The committee was formed in order to "establish an official process to rename [Philip] J. Schuyler Achievement Academy, and to evaluate the history behind each district building's name in order to consider other changes as necessary".[63]
↑ The superintendent was directed to change the name by Sep 8, 2020 and a news release stated that the change was "effective for the 2020–21 school year".[74][75] A letter to the community stated that items were being replaced immediately, and the school's web page had begun switching to the new name on the day of the renaming decision.[76][77]
↑ The Marge Schott Seminar Room is located in Carl Blegen Library, which houses the university's Archive and Rare Books Library.[83] [84][85][86]
↑ The vote followed University of Oregon President Michael Schill's recommendation to the board to rename the hall because of Deady's racist views.[89]
↑ One such attempt occurred in 2016, when the university's Black Student Task Force demanded that the building be renamed. On January 25, 2017, President Schill refused the demand.[90]
↑ Society members also pointed out that Linnaeus was not an entomologist, and using his name for the games implied that the games were centered around the taxonomy of insects, even though the games actually covered a wide range of entomology.[130]
↑ Date of denaming. The new name was chosen on July 16.[131][132]
↑ Over 6,500 suggestions were submitted, with the top five names being West Side Middle School, Katherine Johnson Middle School, Charleston Middle School, Jack Perry Middle School, and Booker T. Washington Middle School.[133]
↑ At the time, the area was in the state of Virginia.[134]
↑ The board had also considered the issue the previous year, but had elected to keep the name at the time.[136]
↑ The letter was received by the board on July 6, 2020.[143] The school was previously called "William E. Fanning Elementary School", but the board had changed the name to "Fanning Academy of Science and Technology" when it tried to "partially defuse the issue".[144][145]
↑ His name is "included in list No. 2 of Orange County KKK members", but there was considerable debate over the validity of the list, as seen in the minutes of the board meetings of January 14, 2019 and January 28, 2019.[146][145][144]
↑ Rice University Professor Raymond L. Johnson had "wr[itten] in [Moore's] teacher profile that Moore once told a black student 'he was welcome to take his course, but that he would start with a C and could only go down from there.'"[157]
↑ The Spun notes that "[t]here's no apparent controversy surrounding Jamail or his family.[158]
↑ The renamings of Davis and Lee passed 6–1 and the renaming of Lanier passed 5–2.[174]
↑ A private group had already raised more than $42,000.[174]
↑ Board hoped to obtain student input in autumn before renaming the school in spring of 2021.[180][181]
↑ The mascot was first chosen in 1926, shortly after the college was founded as University Junior College during a time when there was "an education statute mandating racially segregated schools".[184]
↑ Two blocks of the southeast area of the neighbourhood are actually located in Aurora.[234]
↑ This can be translated as "Liberty and Human Dignity Square".[247]
↑ Because the board called an emergency meeting, advocates working on the renaming for years were disappointed at being unable to attend, with one organizer stating that she felt snubbed, and a group of student advocates who wanted the park named for both Frederick Douglass and his wife Anna Murray Douglass were unable to present their request at the meeting.[277]
↑ Douglas supported expanded slavery in a debate against Abraham Lincoln, and his wife owned at least 100 slaves.[278]
↑ The commission found no record of the park being formally named by the city after Williams, but acknowledged that it was being referred to with his name, and adopted a resolution rejecting the usage of that name.[283]
1 2 Mohrenstraße is thought to derive its name from black or former slaves, who may have lived there in the early 18th century.[325]
↑ The abbreviation is taken from its original name, "Berliner Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft".[324]
↑ A spokesperson for BVG stated that they "[we]re not responsible for street names" and added that the Wikipedia article on him had not covered his anti-Semitism until recently.[325]
↑ It is unclear if the ferry was actually renamed or simply denamed, since this phrase also appears to have been often used to refer to the ferry service even before the name change.
1 2 Changed technically executed on unknown date prior to date of first known report.
↑ Trader Joe's statement issued during the George Floyd protests was first reported on July 17, 2020.[376]
↑ In 2019, a spokesperson for Trader Joe's had stated, "[A]s we make our way through label updates on older products, we will change any preexisting variations to Trader Joe's", in response to an inquiry from a Nylon reporter.[377] In 2020, the same spokesperson had stated, "[W]e have been in the process of updating older labels and replacing any variations with the name Trader Joe's, and we will continue [to] do so until we complete this important work", in response to a petition.[376]
↑ Change would also propagate to all Dixie-branded products.[401]
↑ This is the first known report of how the two new names were chosen.[436] The Sheridan Livery Inn announced their name change on social media on Jun 7, 2020,[437] while the Robert E. Lee Hotel's name change was reported by The New York Times on Jul 26, 2020.[438]
↑ The team also announced that they would use the names "Edmonton Football Team" and "EE Football Team" until a more appropriate new name is found.[467]
↑ Habibi still passed the test, but refrained from interacting with CMS-A since the experience.[488]
↑ Sources do not appear to state any policy change for existing usage.
↑ The organization had previously refused to change the name, despite controversy.[502]
↑ George Newbold Lawrence, the bird's descriptor, had named the species after his friend McCown before McCown fought for the Confederacy.[503] The species can be found in the US, Canada, and Mexico.[504]
The Jefferson Davis Highway, also known as the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, was a transcontinental highway in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s that began in Arlington, Virginia, and extended south and west to San Diego, California; it was named for Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, United States senator, and Secretary of War. Because of unintended conflict between the National Auto Trail movement and the federal government, it is unclear whether it ever really existed in the complete form that its United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) founders originally intended.
Tyler Legacy High School, previously known as Robert E. Lee High School, is one of two Tyler Independent School District high school campuses in the city of Tyler, Texas, the other being Tyler High School. Tyler Legacy High School has served the East Texas community since opening in 2020 and classified as a 6A school by the UIL. In 2013, the school was rated "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency.
Mountain View High School is a public high school located in Quicksburg, Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. It is home to almost 625 students, in grades 8-12. The school is part of the Shenandoah County Public School System. Mike Dorman is the current principal.
Unity Reed High School is a public secondary school in Bull Run, Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas. It was formerly known as Stonewall Jackson High School. In May 2007, Newsweek magazine ranked Unity Reed 530th in the nation on its annual list of "Best High Schools in America". In 2001, Time named Unity Reed as a High School of the Year.
Mechanicsville High School is a public high school located in Mechanicsville, Virginia, United States. It serves students in grades 9 through 12 and is part of Hanover County Public Schools.
Robert E. Lee Day is a state holiday in parts of the Southern US, commemorating the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. It is rooted in the rise of the Lost Cause myth prevalent throughout the Southern United States, as Lee was a central figure in Lost Cause mythology due to his social status, military exploits, and personality.
Julius L. Chambers High School, is a high school located in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System, and opened in 1997. The sports teams are known as the Cougars.
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
The Robert E. Lee Monument was an outdoor bronze equestrian statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and his horse Traveller located in Charlottesville, Virginia's Market Street Park in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District. The statue was commissioned in 1917 and dedicated in 1924, and in 1997 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was removed on July 10, 2021, and melted down in 2023.
Although the Confederate States of America dissolved at the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865), its battle flag continues to be displayed as a symbol. The modern display began during the 1948 United States presidential election when it was used by the Dixiecrats, a political party that opposed civil rights for African Americans. Further display of the flag was a response to the civil rights movement and the passage of federal civil rights laws in the 1950s and 1960s.
Liberty Magnet High School is a public magnet school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, founded in the 1950s but was closed in 2009. The school was subsequently reopened in 2011 as a magnet school in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. Liberty Magnet has a student body of approximately 1,100 students. Liberty Magnet High School is classified as an "A" school, receiving a 106.7 SPS in 2017. Liberty requires students to pass enrollment standards and exceed graduation standards.
More than 160 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.
Mockingbird Elementary School, formerly known as Stonewall Jackson Elementary School, is a public elementary school located in the Lower Greenville neighborhood, in East Dallas, Dallas, Texas. It is operated by the Dallas Independent School District (DISD).
The Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America, more commonly referred to as the Naming Commission, was a United States government commission created by the United States Congress in 2021 to create a list of military assets with names associated with the Confederate States of America and recommendations for their removal.
↑ Ben Wyatt announces King Leopold ranges in the Kimberley to be renamed (Radio broadcast). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. June 12, 2020. Event occurs at 03:15, 04:15. ... to what extent is it a reassessment brought on by so many questions being asked about so many statues and monuments and names around the world at the moment. ... it's been elevated by that very discussion and those activities around the world. ... How significant though, Minister, is it this week when, in the Belgian city of Antwerp they pulled down a statue of King Leopold? ... very significant ... so I'm keen to do this soon.
↑ "Community message — June 29". Office of the President, University of Maine. June 29, 2020. Archived from the original on July 7, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
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