It's a bumpy road for King

The News & Observer

March 12, 2006

It's a bumpy road for King;
Some eastern cities, counties resist efforts to name streets for the civil rights leader

By: Jerry Allegood, Staff Writer

Roadways named for Martin Luther King Jr. are becoming more common across North Carolina, but some naming proposals are encountering detours, delays and dead ends.

Although proponents say naming a street for the civil rights leader unifies communities, it has also created disagreements.

The Carteret County Board of Commissioners recently rebuffed a proposal to name part of U.S. 70 for King and adopted a policy that only county residents could be honored. Onslow County commissioners are considering naming a bypass for King's wife, the late Coretta Scott King, but some residents say local leaders or military personnel should be honored.

In Greenville, community forums address the possibility of renaming a main drag for King, an idea that has simmered since a mile of one street was named for him eight years ago. "The issue comes up just about every year now," said Rose Glover, a member of the Greenville City Council.

Derek Alderman, an associate professor of geography at East Carolina University in Greenville, said at least 36 places in North Carolina have roads named for King, the seventh-highest number nationwide. At least 730 places in the United States have named streets for King.

Alderman, who has studied street-naming for 10 years, said the number of roadways named after King has increased since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated in 1986.

The proliferation of names has not made change easier.

Glover said black residents in Greenville are not happy that Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is only part of Fifth Street, a signature route that runs through residential neighborhoods, downtown and the ECU campus. The City Council voted in 1998 to rename only part of the street after some residents and business owners said they did not want to give up the historic Fifth Street addresses.

Those concerns remain. Charles Wilkerson Jr. of S.G. Wilkerson and Sons Funeral Home and Crematory said Thursday that his family business has been identified with Fifth Street since 1975. "We don't want to have to change our address," he said. "We don't want to have to go through all that."

The 4.6-mile street actually has three names -- West Fifth, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and East Fifth. "That shows the division in the city of Greenville," said Glover, who is retired from the ECU medical school.

Community dialogue

Glover is co-chairwoman of an ad hoc community group, part of the ECU Chancellor's Community Advisory Council, that discusses options such as naming all of Fifth Street or another thoroughfare for King. About 60 people attended a forum on the topic sponsored by ECU last month. Another is scheduled for March 27.

Although there is no specific street-naming proposal before the City Council, Glover said it will likely be considered after the forums.

Greenville Mayor Don Parrott said he has heard from many people who do not want to give up the Fifth Street name. "They look at this as a historic street, and they don't want to change," he said.

He said he has an open mind about the issue and wants to see what options come from the forums.

William S. Corbitt III, a Fifth Street resident who attended the first forum, said he thinks that naming a planned U.S. 264 bypass around Greenville would be a better way to honor King. "This is a tremendously unifying concept in that everyone coming into or leaving Greenville or traveling on the bypass will see King's name, and it will memorialize him," he said.

Calvin Henderson of Winterville, president of the Pitt County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he is not opposed to naming the planned road for King but is concerned that it would delay the honor. He said Fifth Street is appropriate because it links black and white communities.

"It would be a way of bringing history into the fabric of everyday life," he said.

'It's a local thing'

In Carteret County, the local NAACP branch is seeking to have a portion of U.S. 70 between Morehead City and Beaufort named for King, despite the county commissioners' decision that only local residents could receive such honors.

Gregory Harrison of Newport, the branch's president, said he thinks that county commissioners adopted the policy to thwart efforts to honor King.

Instead of acting on the NAACP request, the commissioners agreed in January to endorse naming the road for two local black leaders, former Morehead City Mayor William Horton and the late Louis Randolph Johnson, a high school principal. Harrison said the families of Horton and Johnson endorsed naming the roadway for King.

Doug Harris of Atlantic Beach, chairman of the county Board of Commissioners, said the new policy was no slap against King. "It's a local thing," he said. "I wouldn't vote to name a roadway down here for Ronald Reagan or George Washington."

The Onslow County Board of Commissioners is considering a proposal to name a section of the U.S. 17 bypass from Lejeune Boulevard to Marine Boulevard for Coretta Scott King. She was selected both to honor civil rights leaders and because another section of the North Carolina highway already has been named for King, said Delma Collins, chairman of the Onslow board.

Collins said many county residents said a local resident should be honored instead of someone who has never been to Jacksonville or Onslow County. He said he does not think the opposition had racial overtones.

"I don't think this community is like that," he said.

Collins said he will make up his mind after reviewing constituent response.

"I don't know what's going to happen," he said. "The verdict is still out."