For years, a 14-block stretch of road along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis was named after Edmund Walton, a real estate developer who introduced racially restrictive covenants to Minnesota.
The Minneapolis City Council Thursday voted to rename Edmund Boulevard to Lena Smith Boulevard.
Council member Aurin Chowdhury sponsored the name change.
"In the street renaming, we not only reject the actions of a really painful past, but we uplift the stories that have often been erased and dismissed,” she said. “I really want to give flowers to the person we are really honoring today, and that is Lena Olive Smith."
Smith was Minnesota's first Black woman lawyer. She was also elected to be the first woman president of the Minneapolis NAACP. She is best known for “representing the Arthur and Edith Lee family, a Black family who faced intense discrimination and threats after purchasing a home in the Field neighborhood in 1931,” according to a report prepared for the council.
The section to be changed from Edmund Boulevard is between 32nd Street East and 42nd Street East, and between 44th Street East and 46th Street East. The section runs parallel to West River Parkway.
Most residents spoke in favor of the change, but a few were concerned about the time and cost involved in switching addresses. More than 100 homes use Edmund Boulevard.
In a council meeting last month, Chowdhury said city staff would help residents with the change with partners like the postal service, and with utility companies and state agencies like Driver and Vehicle Services.
