Effort to rename LR road mounts

Confederate called divisive

When Little Rock city officials changed the name of Confederate Boulevard to Springer Boulevard more than 40 years ago, they left a few blocks of the road with its original title.

photo

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A map showing the location of Confederate Blvd.

Now residents in the nearby Granite Mountain neighborhood, as well as some city board members and community activists, say it's time to see that effort through and rename the remainder of the street.

"The Civil War was meant to divide the U.S. Anything that is divisional, has a racist tone, promotes hate, promotes unjustifiable murders of innocent adults and children, it certainly is one we need to dispel, we need to erase, we need to eradicate from a living history. We need to recognize it as the ill it was in historical perspective and move forward to try to prevent any other ills of that nature," Anika Whitfield said.

Whitfield, who doesn't live in Granite Mountain, is leading the name change effort. She must collect signatures from at least 50 percent of property owners with a Confederate Boulevard address to submit an application to the city's Planning Commission. If the commission approves it, the matter goes to the Board of Directors, several members of which have indicated support.

The majority of Confederate Boulevard was renamed Springer Boulevard by the board in 1974 in honor of the Springer family.

The Rev. Horace Springer relocated to Arkansas from Alabama in the 1920s and was one of the first black property owners in the Granite Mountain area. His sons, including Horace Springer Jr., started a minimall with a grocery store and barbecue restaurant. They sold lots and started the development of the area.

The Springer family lobbied for a city bus line to extend there, then for city water. The family also led the successful effort in the 1970s for the city to replace a suspension bridge from 1918 that led to the community.

Worthie Springer, grandson of the Rev. Horace Springer, is quoted in a 2005 Arkansas Times feature as saying he didn't mind sharing the street name with the Confederate one. He died in 2012 at age 80. He said in the article that the street was originally named after a Confederate soldiers home that was razed in the 1940s.

"I have no qualms about it being Springer and Confederate if that will make folks happy," he said. "But Springer needs to be larger up there, and Confederate down below."

Co-owners of Burger House LLC, 2601 Confederate Blvd., said this week that they are against the name change. Co-owner Jim Roy Warden said the name is out of respect for the Confederate soldiers buried at the Little Rock National Cemetery, "not about politics or race."

Co-owner Kawaun Watson said changing a street name won't diminish race issues.

"The step forward would be educating yourselves on who you are. It starts in the heart and knowing who you are in Christ. That surpasses race and all barriers. Changing a street name has nothing to do with the real issue. That's a self issue," Watson said.

The burger business is next to the Little Rock National Cemetery, which was created by the federal government after the Civil War in 1866 as a place to bury Union dead. Almost 1,500 remains recovered from area battlefield graves were interred there.

Years later in 1884, an 11-acre Confederate cemetery was established adjacent to Little Rock National Cemetery. The bodies of 640 Confederate soldiers were removed from Mount Holly Cemetery and reburied at the new site. The city deeded that land to the federal government in 1913, and it was later merged with the national cemetery.

For Whitfield and others, the street name isn't a nod to history, but rather a representation of racism.

And while Worthie Springer didn't mind the street that bore his last name sharing its title, there are other Springers who are against the notion.

In an email to city officials last week, Gloria Springer, Worthie Springer's cousin and granddaughter of the Rev. Horace Springer, wrote that a black community must travel Confederate Boulevard to get in and out of its neighborhood. Her brother, Horace Springer III, also wants the street name changed.

"It is and has always been insulting as if the loss of rebel lives, who had rather secede from this country than not be able to buy and sell slaves, were more painful than the chattel slavery and loss of life of the slaves and their descendants," she wrote.

City Directors Kathy Webb, Brad Cazort and Doris Wright voiced their support for the name change.

The Union Rescue Mission located on the street supports the name change. The city-owned homeless day resource center is also located there.

R. David Scruggs Sr., owner of H.F. Scruggs Inc. at 2920 Confederate Blvd., said he objects to the name change because his business has been there since 1941. The company is one of the primary reasons a portion of Confederate Boulevard remained after the 1974 name change, according to city records.

He respects the Springer family but noted that Confederate Boulevard was named for the Confederate soldiers home. Ancestors of both the Springers and Scruggses used to work at the soldiers home.

"Personally, I don't see anything political about the fact that they did build a facility for these retired veterans that actually lived there. The street was named for that," Scruggs said.

Metro on 07/04/2015

Upcoming Events