Title
Recommend a Name for the Park Formerly Known as Jackson Park
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Recreation and Park Commission
From: Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Re: Recommend a Name for the Park Formerly Known as Jackson Park
BACKGROUND
At the May 10 and June 14, 2018 meetings, in response to a written request from a community member to rename Jackson Park, the Recreation and Parks Commission (Commission) discussed the history of President Andrew Jackson and the policy and process to rename a park. The Commission didn't take action on the renaming request and instead requested the item return for further discussion at a later date.
An online local petition was organized to rename Jackson Park and in 2020 garnered over 1,200 signatures in support.
At the July 9, 2020 meeting, the Commission unanimously voted to recommend to City Council that Jackson Park be renamed. The Commission also established a subcommittee to facilitate a naming committee that represents a diverse cross-section of the Alameda community and that the Commission will recommend a new name of the Park to City Council by December 31, 2020.
At the July 21, 2020 meeting, City Council unanimously approved denaming Jackson Park.
Alameda's first park was named after President Andrew Jackson in 1909. It is being renamed because Jackson personally enslaved hundreds of Africans and was the architect of the Indian Removal Act. Under Jackson's Removal policy (now known as the Trail of Tears), Federal troops evicted indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands in the southwest U.S. and marched them to new reservations in Oklahoma, resulting in thousands of deaths from starvation and exposure.
DISCUSSION
The Commission's subcommittee appointed 13 committee members. Most people submitted an application based on specific questions and a few members were directly appointed in an effort to represent a wide range of interests in the park renaming process. T...
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