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Group eyes renaming
as part of larger issue
BY JENNIFER FAIR
AND ADAM W. RHEW
STAFF WRITERS
Members of a committee imbued
with power to change the name of
Airport Road took on broad issues
during their first meeting Friday.
After months of deliberation and
setbacks, the Special Committee to
Consider Renaming Airport Road
finally began its work.
And committee members high
lighted area race relations as the
larger issue of which the potential
renaming of Airport Road in honor
of Martin Luther King Jr. is only
apart.
“Although we will work toward
a recommendation, we will work
with issues that are much bigger
than renaming a road,” said facili
tator Graig Meyer.
Last month, the town hired
four facilitators from Open Source
Leadership Strategies Inc. to ensure
that the committee’s meetings go
smoothly.
The group’s first meetings,
which lasted eight hours on Friday
and continued for another eight on
Saturday, included large and small
group discussions between the
facilitators and 19 of the commit
tee members.
Committee member Sheila A.
Mikhail, who owns a business on
Airport Road, unexpectedly had
to leave town and was unable to
attend the meeting.
In small group meetings on
Friday, committee members were
asked to discuss three topics: rea
sons for renaming Airport Road,
reasons against renaming the road
and other options to honor King.
Celebrating King’s legacy was a
common reason members cited for
wanting to rename the road.
“If this community really is com
mitted to (King’s) values, then we
should raise them up,” said Yonni
Chapman, a UNC graduate student
and an expert on the area’s history.
Local history and financial con
cerns were popular reasons mem
bers gave to explain why Airport
Road should not be renamed.
Other reasons included a loss of
racial privilege and a loss of con
trol over the name of a place where
people live and work.
Suggestions for alternatives to
renaming the road ranged from
dedicating the library in honor of
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“I’ve been in the civil rights movement.
I don’t want to relive all this J+O years
later.”
CHUCK STONE, UNC PROFESSOR AND COMMITTEE MEMBER
King to renaming the University
after him.
But it was clear that renaming a
road was not the issue on the minds
of many committee members.
“No matter how hard we try, we
cannot erase that this is a racial
issue,” said Brenda Brown, a citi
zen at large on the committee.
The afternoon began with what
facilitators called a kiva conversa
tion.
Chairs were arranged in three
circles, and the members were
asked to sit according to race. The
groups rotated so that each group
spoke twice.
Committee members responded
to a prompt to speak about the
connection between race relations
and renaming Airport Road.
A group consisting only of black
committee members consistently
said racial divisions still exist in
Chapel Hill.
“Race matters,” said Mayor Pro
Tern Edith Wiggins. “There is this
myth that Chapel Hill functions at a
higher level of understanding. Race
matters even in Chapel Hill.”
Another group, which consisted
only of white people, was divided
on the proposal.
Catherine Holland, who owns a
business on Airport Road, said she
thinks that the renaming is being
forced on people and that there
are other ways to honor King that
would not be as invasive.
But council member Sally
Greene said the road would bring
attention to King’s distinct con
nection to Chapel Hill.
“I think it’s deplorable that I’ve
lived here 17 years and it wasn’t
until recently that I heard about
(King speaking at UNC during the
19605),” she said.
The final group, which consisted
of members of both races, brought
up several different points.
Creighton Irons, a UNC senior
and a member of the group, weighed
the renaming by considering how
he would feel if Franklin Street
were renamed to honor King.
“In the end, I would still go
to changing the name of that,”
he said. “My kids will know it as
Martin Luther King, and I can tell
them that is used to be Franklin
and why it was changed, and that
will mean even more.”
Brenda Brown reminded
her fellow committee members
that without King, black people
wouldn’t have had the right to
speak on this issue.
“Honoring the road after Dr.
King would be the greatest honor
you could bestow on Chapel Hill,”
she said.
During the group’s break after
the kiva conversation, committee
member Chuck Stone left.
Stone, a University professor
who knew King, said he was frus
trated with the process. He did not
attend Saturday’s meeting.
“I’ve been in the civil rights
movement,” he said. “I don’t want
to relive all this 40 years later.”
After listening to comments
from the public, the committee had
a large group discussion of what
it means to be a racist and what
exactly the sacrifice of renaming
the road would be.
Several members made it clear
that they do not believe that those
opposed to the renaming are racist
—but they said racism does play a
part in the renaming debate.
“We’re opening up a wound that
has never healed,” said Bishop L.
Gene Hatley. “It has a scab on it, and
now the scab has been peeled off”
When the group ended its
Friday discussion at 4 p.m., facili
tator Graig Meyer said the group
had experienced some discomfort
something the facilitators con
sidered important in the process
—and had addressed some of
the deeper issues underlying the
change.
“You have to accept nondecisive
(conclusions),” Meyer said. “It may
not be one answer.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
News
Road, airport crafted history
BY CATHERINE SHAROKY
STAFF WRITER
During the 11 months of contro
versy over the potential renaming
of Airport Road to honor Martin
Luther King Jr., many people have
stressed the importance of Airport
Road in the town’s history.
Though the exact history of the
road is hard to define, some point
out that it is simply connected to
the history of its namesake the
Horace Williams Airport.
“The connection between the
University, airport and Airport
Road itself is a historically signifi
cant one,” said Jonathan Howes, for
mer Chapel Hill mayor and current
special assistant to the chancellor
for local relations. “(Airport Road)
wouldn’t have been named that if
there hadn’t been an airport there.”
Since its construction in 1928,
the airport has been a historical
landmark in Chapel Hill.
Stunt fliers, parachute jumps and
$1 plane rides were advertised in the
Chapel Hill Weekly in the 19305.
During the summer, air shows were
popular community attractions.
“In those days, a couple hun
dred people would turn out and
kids would ride bicycles out and
horses out,” said Doug Eyre, a local
historian. “We had an airport, and
everyone wanted to see the air
shows and watch the planes.”
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The airport’s name was set
in 1941 when UNC philosophy
Professor Horace Williams made
the University the sole heir to his
real estate fortune.
“I give to the University of North
Carolina all my property of every
description and all of it,” Williams’
will stated. “The property is to be
held in trust forever.”
While the income from his estate
went to University fellowships, 400
bequeathed acres of property were
used to expand the airport, which
was then renamed in his honor.
Eyre said the road was com
monly referred to as the airport
road since 1928 simply because it
was the road that led to the airport.
When street signs were formalized
in the 19605, the road already was
well known as Airport Road.
The airport’s growing popular
ity led to construction on the road
itself in 1941, when 20 of the road’s
23 curves were straightened out.
In 1941, the University received
a federal grant from the Works
Progress Administration that helped
build new runways and hangars.
The money helped fund a Navy
preflight training program at the
airport during World War 11.
According to the Chapel Hill
Weekly, more than 120 people
applied for the 50 flight positions.
Howes said former President
George H.W. Bush and Baseball Hall
of Fame outfielder Ted Williams
were enlisted in the program.
“This state, with its Wright
Brothers tradition, has always been
air-minded,” stated a letter from
former University president Frank
Porter Graham to Naval officer Lt.
Leslie Parkinson in 1943. “I think
that when the war is over, we are in
a position to go right ahead with our
program of building ... one of the
finest departments of aeronautics
anywhere in the United States.”
Though Graham’s wishes might
not have come true, Horace Williams
Airport continues to hold promi
nence as the location for Medical
Air Operations, the transporta
tion facet of the N.C. Area Health
Education Centers program.
But the future of both entities is
in doubt with the looming possibil
ity of Airport Road’s being renamed
and the airport’s being demolished
to make way for the University’s
Carolina North satellite campus.
“I agree that there are a lot of
things in our history and that each
of them has a different level of sig
nificance for each of us,” said Chapel
Hill Mayor Kevin Foy. “But it is a
fact that the airport has played a
role of history in this town.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
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