Obama? Lou Rawls? Readers suggest new names for Jackson Park

A few days ago, we wrote that the time has come to rename Jackson and Douglas parks.

We didn’t suggest new names, nor did we ask you to offer your ideas. But we’re glad you did.

Turning Jackson Park into Obama Park was a top suggestion. Makes sense, given that the Barack Obama Presidential Center is planned for a corner of the park just west of the Museum of Science and Industry. The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Park also was a popular idea.

You wrote, as well, in support of an effort by West Side residents and a group of South Loop elementary schoolers to change Douglas Park to Douglass Park — honoring orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The protests following last month’s police killing of African American George Floyd have led to a global rethinking of racially charged public monuments. And not for nothing.

Jackson Park is named for President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner responsible for the brutal relocation of Native Americans. Douglas Park carries the name of Illinois Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, who sought a Civil War-era compromise that would have preserved the Union — and slavery.

South Sider E.M. Walker said the parks should be given Native American names. “Potawatomi or Sauk Park, something like that,” she said. “We can and should take opportunities where possible to uplift indigenous names.”

We’re not picking winners here, but we were impressed by a Hyde Park resident’s idea that Jackson Park should be renamed for its designer, Frederick Law Olmsted. “He was a courageous anti-slavery researcher, he set up the Union hospitals during the Civil War, he advocated parks as necessary urban design where all people could gather,” the Hyde Park reader said.

Other suggested names for Jackson Park included Sun Ra — after the avant garde 20th Century musician; House music pioneer Frankie Knuckles; Kitihawa, who was the Native American wife of Haitian-born Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, Chicago’s first non-indigenous settler, and soul singers Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls.

And, of course, people had jokes. Especially for Jackson Park, where some suggested subbing out Andrew’s name for Phil, Janet, Michael — even LaToya.

More than a few of you suggested Mahalia Jackson. A righteous choice, but the late gospel singer already has a park in her name at 84th and Kerfoot. Same goes for playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who has a park at 56th and Indiana.

The Chicago Park District has said it won’t rebadge any park that already has an official name rather than a placeholder.

We hope its leaders listen to your suggestions and rethink that stance.

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